DescentBB

I mean if i dont put anything other than dvd's in there why would it get dusty? Im haveing problems with it right now. What kind should i buy if any?

The laser can still get dusty. It only takes a spec or two to do it. If you smoke in the house, the smoke particles can get on it, and you suck 'cause you smoke.

Cleaners are just a CD with a cleaning surface on the 'read' side. I'd recommend 220 grit or higher.

Lol Testi!
The laser electronics generates an electrostatic field around the lens, sucking dust to it. Also dust collects whether you use the item or not even though you think the thing is airtight, an optical drive is not.

The lens is convex, it has a bubble up curve, those CD Lens cleaners are good to gather up all the dust from the plastic CD tray and scrape it over your lens, perhaps depositing it all around the edges of the lens. Now your focus is off... now your mech. assembly starts hunting and your focus is constantly changing. Wears out the assembly and is tough on the Laser, trust me on this.

You can dis-assemble the unit, be careful with the ribbon cables unlock the clips that hold them in, and clean the lens with a Q-tip and a tiny daub of water on the tip. Be very gentle and don't hammer on the assembly.

Front Bezel removal
Destructions (for Mac but similar)

Or just clean the tray before you put the cleaner in there

Or it scrapes up a wad of grease some people like to put on the visible gear assembly.

Some of the Things I've found in CD transports/Gears;

Singer Sewing Machine oil
Vaseline
graphite
Gear Lube or axle grease, white lithium axle grease
Transmission fluid
Pot, Coke, Acid
hair, of course
false nails
nails (metal ones)
tacks
C02 residue (fire extinguisher)
various food items from the 4 and under crowd
various food items from the 5-18+ crowd
various drinks, various fluids, puke
cat whizz, or whizz in general
the white foam from some cd cakes
smashed cd's
paper, paper clips, staples etc.

Holy shiznit. Hehe. Isaac, there's your checklist prior to trying the cleaner

In that case add Mushrooms to the list...

Canuck wrote:Or it scrapes up a wad of grease some people like to put on the visible gear assembly.

Canuck, you're a nut, what are you talking about? The gears are nowhere near where the brush would be on a cd cleaner. People like to tell horror stories of these things when they have never used them before. I have used cd cleaners before and each time they have "fixed" the problem my cd/dvd was having reading the disks. Although, opening up the case and cleaning it with a q-tip as Canuck suggested does sound like a better solution.

Umm imagine a horribly large wad of axle grease someone puts on the visible gear train when you open some CD/DVD trays... imagine what happens when the brushes do contact the portion that juts above tray level... Axle grease eats the optical coating on the lens lickity split.

I had a commercial Panasonic VCR come in and some maintenance man had sprayed brake cleaner on an gear train. By the time I got it the plastic had melted.

$1,500.00 VCR

I can attest to this. I've seen some crazy stuff like in other electronics. Assemblers get tired or stupid or both and just start putting whatever they feel is \"right\" on whatever they're building. .. not that thier engineers REALLY took into concideration what is an approproate amount.

If it's robot made, then there are nozzle blarps from container changes or mal-calibrations that happen.

I really don't think he's exaggeration. A frind of mine once had to chisle oatmeal and a PBJ sandwich out of one. o_0