Cleaning Laser Lens Works Great

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CD and DVD Writers Discuss, Cleaning Laser Lens Works Great at Computer Hardware forum; Working on an old computer, the CD/RW drive and the DVD Rom drive were giving me nightmares. After spending hours with drivers, settings, software updates, new install of Windows XP Home, I had enough. With not much to lose on a 6 year old machine, I took out the CD/RW

workknot (CD Freaks Member): Posts: 184; Posted: 27-10-2006

Working on an old computer, the CD/RW drive and the DVD Rom drive were giving me nightmares. After spending hours with drivers, settings, software updates, new install of Windows XP Home, I had enough. With not much to lose on a 6 year old machine, I took out the CD/RW drive first. Remove the bottom cover, 4 small screws, carefully lifted the complete mechanism up out of the case after removing the front Bezel. With the tray pulled most of the way out, I cleanded the lens with a Q-Tip and alchohol. While it was apart, I put a little WD40 on a Q-Tip and applied a little to the rails that the laser slides on. Re-assembled and put back in the machine. Problems solved!!! It will now read and write anything I throw at it. Did the same thing with the DVD Rom drive and it performs properly now also. Both items had terrible problems and I was ready to buy new and trash these drives. It took about 20 minutes per drive and now they are running very good. The CD/RW was barely operable before doing the cleaning. Just thought this may be of value to those who are not faint of heart about investigating problem hardware.
Regards: Pop's

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Today (MyCE Staff): Posts: 15,596

BeardedKirklander (CD Freak): Posts: 2,949; Posted: 27-10-2006

You are braver than I, but good work nevertheless.

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deanimator (MyCE Resident): Posts: 3,810; Posted: 27-10-2006

A buddy put one of those dubious cleaning discs into his Mac drive and killed it!
I believe it had been functioning just fine...I think the old rule is "If it ain´t broke, don´t fix it"
In your case however,

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BeardedKirklander (CD Freak): Posts: 2,949; Posted: 27-10-2006

Thankfully, with DVD Burners in the $30-$35 range (USD), it's pretty easy to replace one if they do go wonky.

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workknot (CD Freaks Member): Posts: 184; Posted: 27-10-2006

It was really quite easy, just took my time and did not force anything, plastic and pcb boards break easily as I well know from past experience. I would not hesitate to do it again, especially on an older machine. Thing is, this machine was from a rather clean non-smokers home. I can imagine us smokers run risk of a film developing on the laser lens much faster.
Pop's

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steve b (CDFreaks Resident): Posts: 562; Posted: 27-10-2006

I cleaned an old CD player in a similar fashion. It wouldn't play CDs, but after cleaning, it worked well.

I don't remember exactly, but I think I cleaned the lens with alcohol and a microfiber cloth.

I cleaned the rails and lubricated them with a light oil. Very pure kerosene actually.

I guess the lens cleaning did the trick. I'm not so sure about lubricating the rails. Probably a good idea, but over time the oil will attract dust.

As luck would have it, I got a cheap DVD player soon after. I now use that for playing CDs, so I don't know if the old CD player still works, but I assume so.

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soneman (CD Freaks Senior Member): Posts: 692; Posted: 30-10-2006

Well done for recovering those drives.

I think I might try those steps when my drives start to die on me.

The only thing that I'm curious about is will this method work for other types of DVD/CD players?

By that I mean stand alone DVD Players, Hi-Fi and Car CD players, Game Consoles etc.

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steve b (CDFreaks Resident): Posts: 562; Posted: 30-10-2006

I think it's worth a try. If you can open it up, what can you lose? My CD player must be at least 15 years old. It is one of those audio things that plugs in to a stereo receiver/amplifier thing.

I think there are also lens cleaning disks for sale, but I don't know if they work. I guess they are fuzzy disks you put in the player and maybe the player will spin it and clean itself.

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soneman (CD Freaks Senior Member): Posts: 692; Posted: 31-10-2006

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Originally Posted by steve b

From my experiences, lens cleaning discs generally don't make much of a difference to readability problems.

Lens cleaning discs were designed to maintain the clarity of your lens over a significant period of time (i.e. several years). As far as I know, they weren't designed to be used as a quick fix solution to recovering a faulty lens.

That's why I asked whether the opening up of the drive/lens and physically cleaning it method would work for other types of optical disc drives.

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workknot (CD Freaks Member): Posts: 184; Posted: 31-10-2006

soneman; I agree with you on the lens cleaning disk. I read somewhere that those disks can actually damage some players lens. Can't remember where though. That is why I decided to give the manual cleaning a try. I also think this would work on any type optical drive that starts to act up. Over time, depending on the envirnment that a player is in, the lens can become hazed over. A simple cleaning did wonders for both of the 6 year old drives I experimented on. The CD/RW drive was almost useless before I cleaned it. It would not even read many disk type when inserted and would even lock up the machine. After the cleaning, it will read anything it was designed to read. I realize a good all purpose drive can be purchased for around $35 with shipping, but the machine I was working on did not warrant spending much to get it operable. After cleaning the drives and getting them to function, I did a re-install of XP Home and the old AMD Duron 750 actually is running quite good.
Regards; Pop's

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soneman (CD Freaks Senior Member): Posts: 692; Posted: 01-11-2006

Thanks for the info.

I think I'll try this method when some of my drives and DVD/CD players start to play up.

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soneman (CD Freaks Senior Member): Posts: 692; Posted: 09-11-2006

I just thought I'd let everyone know that I tried this method with a 10 year old Pioneer Car CD Player and an old Playstation (PSX).

Both couldn't read anything at all. So I tried physically cleaning the lens with some Isopropyl Alcohol and a Cotton Bud (known as a Q-Tip in the US), and both mysteriously started to read discs again.

It's quite incredible that something as simple as cleaning the lens physically could turn a faulty lens into a fully functional lens.

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workknot (CD Freaks Member): Posts: 184; Posted: 11-11-2006

soneman; Great job, it seems that over time, just a light film of haze can form on the eye of the lazer lens. That seems to be enough to cause read/write problems on any device that has a lens. Saves $$ if a person has a few minutes to dis-assemble the machine and do a simple cleaning. The biggest part is just getting the unit out, after that, it takes about 20 minutes to complete the task.
Regards; Pop's

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CCRomeo (Moderator): Posts: 4,838; Posted: 11-11-2006

I tried physically cleaning the lens with some 100% pure Alcohol (a camera len cleaner should work) and a Q-Tip, and some white lube or WD40 on the rails, did not work all the time but at least 50% of the time. Be very carefull not to apply too much pressure on the lens. It is sure worth a try, before you trash the drive. A DVD/CD lens cleaning disc also work for a time then I think the little brushes get dirty and then the disc does not work so well.

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VonTrob (New on Forum): Posts: 20; Posted: 12-11-2006

Yup, bring on the cotton buds and alcohol

Good for cassette heads, vcr heads all types of laser and atm opacity sensors (you don't wanna know)

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CCRomeo (Moderator): Posts: 4,838; Posted: 12-11-2006

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Originally Posted by CCRomeo

just finished doing it tonight to my SONY DVP NS325 was playing a disc very poorly; bad audio distorted and slightly out of sync, video of fair to poor quality. I thought the recording could be bad, but the disc played fine on another player. I tried a DVD/CD cleaner disc a week ago, so I tried taking things apart to clean the lens as above. After the cleaning the same disc played fine and the player is back in service. Total time about 15mins total cost 0. Hardest thing was getting at the lens due to the design of the drive and the wires to it. The date on the SONY was 2003 one of the first low cost DVD players that would play -R/RW, +R/RW, MP3, Video CDs...not my fav player but a work horse.

Note to all that burn their own DVDs poor playback may not = bad burn but may be due to a poorly functioning DVD player. Keep you old DVD drives clean the lens and try once more before you trash them.

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rippac4 (New on Forum): Posts: 3; Posted: 22-11-2006

read all the info posted I think that maybe the problem with mine, will def. try when, thanx to the above posters

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soneman (CD Freaks Senior Member): Posts: 692; Posted: 22-11-2006

I just thought I'd let everyone know that I've also tried this technique with my friend's launch model Playstation2. Before it would only read certain types of game discs (silver ones only) and it wouldn't play any DVD films at all.

So I opened it up, got access to the lens, used a cotton bud (Q-Tip to the Americans out there) and put some Isopropyl Alcohol on it. I gently wiped the lens for about 2 minutes. Then I promply went on to oil the rails (by putting some WD-40 on a seperate cotton bud) and also oiled the rail where the disc tray slides open.

So I closed it up and then tried testing the drive by putting in the problem discs again. The lens clicked for about 2-3 seconds when trying to read the disc but this time, the disc is actually detected in the bowser. Success!

Then I tried every other problem disc and DVD films they all booted up first time too.

Some of these discs didn't click at all when trying to detect the disc and the games that were working before are still working on it.

And to think that when you search for this problem on google, all of the sites say that you have to open up the PS2 and fiddle around with the laser arm settings.

All it took was the opening up of the console and a little cleaning here and there and hey presto, you've got yourself an almost-brand-new lens.

I'm going to be using this technique on my PS2 soon cos it's been playing up recently and I'll be posting the results here.

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CCRomeo (Moderator): Posts: 4,838; Posted: 22-11-2006

The hardest thing can be getting at the lens to clean it. For some players simply remove the case cover open the drive and you can see the lens. For some other players you must remove the drive from the case take the top off to even see the lens. For computer drives remove the draw front and drive front then the top cover to see the lens. Don't toss out a drive till you try to clean the lens.

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WiltonParmenter (CD Freaks Senior Member): Posts: 456; Posted: 04-01-2007

Can someone on this thread who has manually cleaned their laser lens please tell me how they were able to find the lens? I opened my unit and all I saw was a metal plate as reflected here:

http://www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/Arti...nner_Large.jpg

Here's the thread I started. The drive and its problem is explained in more detail.

http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=204905

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