EchoWars said:
Careful...some lenses are plastic and IPA will ruin them. Use Windex.
Glenn, I believe Windex has alcohol in it. Not sure if it's Methanol or Isopropyl. AFAIK all CD pickup lenses are polycarbonate, and I think IPA may cloud it. I use Ethanol. Vodka works fine. Really unless you get your finger on the lens, distilled water should be good enough to clean the dust off.
Now to the problem at hand:
If your cd mech has a linear motor to move the laser pickup back and forth, rather than a motor and gears, the pickup slides back and forth on machined posts. These posts must be meticulously cleaned and then lubricated, especially if you have a cat or dog, or lots of dust in the environment. If you have a rack gear attached to the pickup and other round gears driving the rack gear, you don't have a linear motor and cleaning isn't that crucial on these types of mechanisms.
If you have a linear motor, clean the posts with q tips and IPA while sliding the pickup back and forth. Then after the IPA dries, put a very thin coat of white lithium grease (the kind I use has Teflon in it) on each post.
Another important lubrication point is the spindle motor bearing. This is the motor that turns the CD. This bearing gets dried up and can cause skipping, especially on the first track. Use a light oil on the bearing, like sewing machine oil.
If you do these things and the player still skips, it is probably time for a new laser. You need an oscilloscope to align the player after the pickup is replaced, so this is something you shouldn't do yourself.