should i use those dry/wet CD Lens cleaners on my dvd/cdrw rom drives?

[dakata24]

my pc is sucking in alot of dust and im afraid that it's effecting my dvd/cdrw drives abit. having some read errors.

i was at compusa and noticed those lens cleaners. it says it works with cdrw/dvd/cd rom... etc.. is this a safe way to go about cleaning my drives? or is their some other way?

 

[Workin']

Those are the only way to clean the lens of a CD-type device. Unless you want to take your drive apart

 

[dakata24]

which is better, dry or wet? compusa had their own brand that didnt involve any liquid but when i went over to officemax, they had a wet lens cleaning kit. any recommendations?

can dust cause a cdrw to not burn anymore and not be able to read cdrw (it can still read burned cdr cds fine) and going through the test phase works, but it cant do the actual burn (not even alittle, cuz i was afraid i coastered some cds but they worked fine in another cdr). it's been like this for awhile, and i wasnt sure if the drive was faulty or not. is this a sign of dustyness or just a busted drive?

 

[Bozo Galora]

I would never use a cleaner, especially one with (abrasive) brushes. You could, with a compressed air can, and a plastic tube extension, blow into unit in middle with drawer half way open. Moveable "Eye" is behind spindle about 3" back from faceplate.
Taking apart unit (cover and front plate) is quite easy - 4 screws and four tabs to override. Clean with CD wipe.
Errors are prob from age of unit, not dust. 7-10K rpm kinda keeps dust off lense.

 

[Workin']

Those cleaners are safe to use. Much safer than blowing high-pressure air into a delicate mechanical device, I would think.

If the cleaners with the little brushes are safe for $2000 hi-end stereo CD players, I'm sure they are fine for a CD-ROM drive.

 

[Bozo Galora]

If you DO take the cover off your CD, you will see it is a very robust mechanism. The "L" shaped carraige that moves the laser rides on two hardened steel rods, with one side of molded plastic assembly having a brass bushing, and the other side capturing its rod with a "C" shaped extension. All this actuated by a small self contained servo motor connected by a series of large (spring loaded rack and pinion and spur) plastic gears. The spindle motor is also self contained with the drive platter pressed to the shaft. Virtually indestructible. While the electricals (motors - pcb components) may fail, the mechanism won't. This is well aged technology.

People that use abrasive impregnated brush type lense cleaners on $2K cd players don't read the magazines that cater to high end users:
"The Stereophile" and "The Absolute Sound".

 

[farmercal]

I would NOT recommend taking a CDROM apart. I took mine apart once and when I put it back together the door would not shut again until I re-torqued the four screws holding it together. Also, the problem I was incurring never went away. CDROMs are designed to work until they die,then you buy another one. The cleaners did help my problem temporary, but I still had to replace the drive.

 

[veryape]

I would definetely not say the mechanism is "indestructable". Took my cd rom drive apart last week because it is'nt reading cd's and was surprised at how flimsy the "eye" mechanism actually is. It kind of just hangs in there with out much support at all. And getting at it is another story. There are other parts that make it hard to actually get at the eye to clean it. At least that was my experience with mine. Maybe they are all built differently. Who knows?

 

[Workin']

Bozo Galora -

WTF is an "abrasive impregnated" brush-type cleaner? I've seen brush-type cleaners that are not impregnated with anything - the ones I've seen are softer than eyelashes. Guess I don't shop at K-Mart too much.

BTW, I read Stereophile regularly and used to read The Absolute Sound occasionally until I got sick of their fact-free equipment reviews. But they do have pretty ads. I'll match high-end audio knowledge with you or anyone else out there.

Tell us another good joke about the "robustness" of CD-ROM drives! I've seen more than a few drives where the drawer wouldn't open because a gear or lever broke or the drawer came off its (broken)track. Not every manufacturer makes heavy-duty drives, you know.

 

[Bozo Galora]

Dear Mr. (brain not) Workin':

<<Guess I don't shop at K-Mart that much>>

You ought to get some of that anger out of your system by having sex on a more regular basis.
Less time with computers and Hi Fi, more in social interchange with real live humans.

It never ceases to amaze me at how some of the people here treat the forum as a debating society, completely separate from trying to help or learn. Now &quot;angry man&quot; wants to ensnare me into an argument on the merits of a Hi Fi magazine. Go vent on someone else. (Why argue with a sniveling little nasty boy?)

Snide, contentious people like you drive the forum down to a lower level.
There is a friendly way to disagree (note other posts), and there is a hostile way (your method).

 

[Workin']

Dear Mr. Bozo Galora

People who live in glass houses should not throw stones -

You started the snide remarks. I thought we were just jousting a little bit, but I guess I was wrong. You had to make it personal.

And I quote:

<<People that use abrasive impregnated brush type lense cleaners on $2K cd players don't read the magazines that cater to high end users:
&quot;The Stereophile&quot; and &quot;The Absolute Sound&quot;.>>

Then, in your post condemning me, here's what you say -

<<You ought to get some of that anger out of your system by having sex on a more regular basis. Less time with computers and Hi Fi, more in social interchange with real live humans.>>

and then......

<<Snide, contentious people like you drive the forum down to a lower level.
There is a friendly way to disagree (note other posts), and there is a hostile way (your method).>>

Nice way for you to not be snide. I think that insulting people's imagined sexual frequency is truly a major enhancement to the discussion. Typical for the juvenile arrested-development mind-set that seems to be becoming more and more a part of participating in these forums.

I wasn't trying to ensnare you in any argument, just responding to your first post implying that I don't know what I'm talking about. Please forgive me for questioning your wisdom. But when someone posts clearly false information (i.e., CD drives are mechanically virtually indestructible), a response falls into the realm of EDUCATION, not trying to create a debating society or being hostile or angry. Dude, you need to lighten up! This is supposed to be fun! I can take a little poke every now and then, but I will never resort to personal insults, as you so readily have.

 

[Bad Dude]

Come on guys, quit it. Go on ICQ for it. We are exchanging info not bunches here

 

[MWink]

I have taken apart an number of CD/DVD drives and have yet to damage one. The best way to clean a drive is to take it apart and clean it by hand. Just be careful because the lense is not very secure in any drive. I have seen lenses with a layer of dust on them even after running a &quot;Cleaning CD&quot; through them multiple times. This process is HIGHLY recommended for CD-RW drives that are having trouble writing.

BTW, I know some people wonder about this so I will tell you the facts. CD-ROM drives have one lense. CD-RW drives also only have one lense that does both reading and writing. DVD drives have 2 lenses. One is for reading CD-ROMs and the other is for DVD-ROMs. Whichever is needed will click into place on a DVD.

Hope this helps.