How To Clean CDs?

[realjimjim]

I've got a Pioneer PD-Mxxx and a guy told me that they will sometimes drip grease down on the CDs which causes the PD-Mxxx to skip.

He advised me to check my CDs for grease spots.

My question is this: How do you clean your CDs?

 

[slow_jazz]

Very seldom but if I do I use warm water and a microfiber cloth....

 

[EchoWars]

Glass Plus, soft cloth.

 

[OvenMaster]

Warm water + Ivory bar soap = lots of suds on my hands. Rinsed with warm water and gently dried with a soft towel.

Tom

 

[shimniok]

my tshirt...

 

[guiller]

I don´t remeber having seen any CDs with grease spots: these might be origininated in unproper handling (fingers on the surface) or because they have been left out of their cases. As a prevention measure, it would be a good idea to make sure that you never get any more grease spots in the future, at least if you can avoid that by proper handling and storing. Of course, buying used Cds can always expose you to anything.

 

[realjimjim]

I don´t remeber having seen any CDs with grease spots: these might be origininated in unproper handling (fingers on the surface) or because they have been left out of their cases. As a prevention measure, it would be a good idea to make sure that you never get any more grease spots in the future, at least if you can avoid that by proper handling and storing. Of course, buying used Cds can always expose you to anything.

It's just one disc and it is brand new, a Japanese Remaster Import of The Kinks, One For The Road. It skips all over the place, I can't find any visable damage so my buddy was telling me it could be a greasy film on the disc which came from my malfunctioning Pioneer PD-M50. No other discs of mine do this, so i thought I'd ask before I used my tee shirt (as mentioned above) which is what I've always done since CDs first came out.

 

[realjimjim]

It's just one disc and it is brand new, a Japanese Remaster Import of The Kinks, One For The Road. It skips all over the place, I can't find any visable damage so my buddy was telling me it could be a greasy film on the disc which came from my malfunctioning Pioneer PD-M50. No other discs of mine do this, so i thought I'd ask before I used my tee shirt (as mentioned above) which is what I've always done since CDs first came out.

I'm thinking my new CD is defective? Have any of you ever gotten a defective CD? I never have.

 

[4dryhme]

We get a lot of questionable discs from the library(you wouldn't believe the crud we've seen on them -- fingerprints, scratches, chocolate...) and we keep a spray bottle of iso alcohol and a microfiber cloth for the job. Wiping from the center to outside of course.

As to defective(new) disc? Never got one yet, here.

 

[realjimjim]

We get a lot of questionable discs from the library(you wouldn't believe the crud we've seen on them -- fingerprints, scratches, chocolate...) and we keep a spray bottle of iso alcohol and a microfiber cloth for the job. Wiping from the center to outside of course.

As to defective(new) disc? Never got one yet, here.

Thanks, I've never gotten a defect before either . . I'm going to try everything all y'all suggested . . . this disc is driving me crazy!

Thanks again!

 

[realjimjim]

We get a lot of questionable discs from the library(you wouldn't believe the crud we've seen on them -- fingerprints, scratches, chocolate...) and we keep a spray bottle of iso alcohol and a microfiber cloth for the job. Wiping from the center to outside of course.

As to defective(new) disc? Never got one yet, here.

Oh, forgot to ask you this: What is a "microfiber cloth?"

 

[4dryhme]

Oh, forgot to ask you this: What is a "microfiber cloth?"

Oh, it's one those cloths for cleaning eye glasses. You can get them at any optometrists or you know, glasses while you wait type shop.

Another thing to try is playing it in another machine to see if it works. I assume you already tried that? Another guess is that maybe the laser assembly in your cdp could be going bad -- best not to think about that yet though.

 

[SPAM]

I've seen a Toshiba CD-ROM at work do that about ten years ago.
Little droplets of oil would get onto the hub of the CD, then get slung off the edges when it spun. When you took the disc out, it was easy to see the radial streaks.
I'd clean 'em with Dawn in the office kitchenette.

 

[realjimjim]

Oh, it's one those cloths for cleaning eye glasses. You can get them at any optometrists or you know, glasses while you wait type shop.

Another thing to try is playing it in another machine to see if it works. I assume you already tried that? Another guess is that maybe the laser assembly in your cdp could be going bad -- best not to think about that yet though.

Thanks!

I have played it in my PD-M50, my H-K FL8400, and Sony CDP-203, same deal, it just skips and goes crazy . . . that is why my buddy said it may be a film of gease on it. This was an expensive CD too!

Thanks!

 

[4dryhme]

Hmm, have you tried looking it up on the web? Maybe they're using some freaky-deaky copy protection scheme?

 

[Ed in Tx]

Thanks!

I have played it in my PD-M50, my H-K FL8400, and Sony CDP-203, same deal, it just skips and goes crazy . . . that is why my buddy said it may be a film of gease on it. This was an expensive CD too!

Thanks!

I suspect you might have a defective CD since it won't play in several players you tried. A little oil should clean off easily with a soft cloth and a spritz of glass cleaner.

I've seen commercially made store bought CDs that were simply defective. I had one once that I bought at Tower Records, that the data was off-center in relation to the center spindle hole, so far off that it wouldn't play in any player I had, except a Mitsui CD-R drive in my old computer, which unfortunately failed afterward because the tracking coils in the laser ass'y literally overheated and it destroyed itself tracking the bad disc. I did manage to rip the data off the disc at 1X speed and burn a good copy, but it cost me a drive. The store was surprised at a defect like that too. They gave me my money back since the CD was an import no longer available.

 

[Fred Sanford]

It's just one disc and it is brand new, a Japanese Remaster Import of The Kinks, One For The Road. It skips all over the place, I can't find any visable damage so my buddy was telling me it could be a greasy film on the disc which came from my malfunctioning Pioneer PD-M50. No other discs of mine do this, so i thought I'd ask before I used my tee shirt (as mentioned above) which is what I've always done since CDs first came out.

Not so much a film, as spots- here's what one looks like when these machines cause the problem:

 

[guiller]

More than a dirty CD it looks to me like a defective CD. It is not clear that you can solve the problem by doing something on the surface of the CD, after all, the hypothesis of an oily spot seems to be just one of the possible explanations for the bad behavior of the CD. Is it clear that those marks signal something on the surface of the transparent layer? The ideal would be to return the CD to the seller, in case this would be possible and obtain a replacement CD, at least in my opinion.

 

[Fred Sanford]

More than a dirty CD it looks to me like a defective CD. It is not clear that you can solve the problem by doing something on the surface of the CD, after all, the hypothesis of an oily spot seems to be just one of the possible explanations for the bad behavior of the CD. Is it clear that those marks signal something on the surface of the transparent layer? The ideal would be to return the CD to the seller, in case this would be possible and obtain a replacement CD, at least in my opinion.

Sorry, I should have been more clear about my picture. My particular photo is of a CD (one of 6 loaded into this machine) that played perfectly for many years in this & other players. Recently, one particular machine started skipping on higher # tracks, then skipping on all tracks (one of my two Denon DCM-444s). I'd had this symptom before with Pioneer 6CD magazine players, so I removed the CDs & looked at them, finding the pattern of grease dots you see in the pic. If you let them play enough, the dots start to look like a ring of grease. I've got a message in to the tech that fixed my Pioneers in the past, but haven't yet heard back where the problem is & what the recommended fix is. Worst case, I'm going to go visit my tech next month.

If Jim's CD never played well in any CD player it was tried in, and doesn't show visible dots or streaks/rings of grease, I don't think it's this particular problem. If multiple discs start skipping once they've been spun in one particular machine, that's when I'd start looking for the grease issue.

I going to use Dawn & water, and see if the discs then play in my other machines.

je

 

[whoaru99]

Also, I've read that you should always wipe the CD in straight lines from center to edge or vice versa, never in a circular motion around the CD.