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Easy Fix for Scratched CDs 328

Posted by timothy from the don't-hate-me-bc-I'm-beautiful dept.
NotQuiteOnto writes "Ben Hayes (om3ga) has performed an experiment as to the best method to fix scratched CDs. He set himself the criteria that it can't take longer that 5 minutes and it has to be something in his house. The result isn't what you'd think ..." Luckily, he stopped before "peanut butter."
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Easy Fix for Scratched CDs More

Easy Fix for Scratched CDs

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  • Put them to better use (Score:5, Funny)

    by ExE122 ( 954104 ) * on Thursday August 03, 2006 @08:03AM (#15838855) Homepage Journal
    I tried a similar experiment but instead I used CDs that did play Kings of Leon to see if I could get them to stop.

    I tried putting them in the microwave [google.com], throwing them across the room [flickr.com], smashing them with my head [guzer.com], and then eating them [google.com].

    It worked! I never had to listen to the Kings of Leon again...

    --
    "A man is asked if he is wise or not. He replies that he is otherwise" ~Mao Zedong

    • Re:Put them to better use (Score:5, Informative)

      by russ1337 ( 938915 ) on Thursday August 03, 2006 @08:10AM (#15838930)


      Caution: Plot Spoiler!!!

      Next I tried a mixture of 3 parts water to one part olive oil (I know they don't mix, but shake!) That almost worked. I mean that the light wasn't scattered when I held it against the light, but my XBox couldn't read it, probably because it was yellow. This made me think that the oily/gel idea was the best way to go. I looked around the bathroom cupboard for somthing similar, and found this:

      Yes, hair gel, and guess what... It worked!

      I applied it in much the same way as the toothpaste, except I didn't dribble water on it. I rubbed it first. Even though I applied it to one area, it ended up evenly spread around the whole disc. I then dribbled water on to loosen it up so I could rub the excess off.

      So, the secret to scratch free CDs is......

      Hair Gel!-Ben

      • But, doesn't that mess up your hair?
      • Hair gel? [wikipedia.org]

        • Re:Put them to better use (Score:4, Interesting)

          by orangesquid ( 79734 ) <<moc.oohay> <ta> <diuqsegnaro>> on Thursday August 03, 2006 @12:04PM (#15840769) Homepage Journal
          A problem that I see much more often than scratched plastic is scratched foil.
          I wonder to myself---why isn't the top layer of the CD coated with another layer of plastic?
          The foil is pretty much exposed to any particles... a thin layer of paint isn't going to do much.
          The CD cases (the big book-like things, not jewel cases) always seem to accumulate little particles in the sleeves, which will rub against the foil, and scratch it, or worse, make it start coming off. This happens especially with cheap CDRs (also, exposing CDRs to heat tends to make the foil start cracking). I don't understand why the data layer isn't well-protected on BOTH SIDES. :(
          I guess the solution to things rubbing against the disc would be to use only jewel cases, as they suspend the disc in air so that particles wouldn't be forced up against it, but, I can't carry around huge crates filled with jewel cases everywhere I go.
          Perhaps the best solution is to keep original CDs in jewel cases, never use cheap CDRs, and only carry around copies of CDs/CDRs in the big CD books, and keep a portable air-can or hand-held vacuum handy to suck dirt out of the case every time it's opened/closed, and never leave it open (just open it to take something in/out, then immediately close it), and never put anything heavy on top of the case (it could press particles that are in the case into the foil).

          Is there a better option? I've lost so many things this way... Are there CDR manufacturers that put extra layers of paint or a thin layer of plastic on the top of the CDR? I seem to recall some audio CDs I own having a layer of plastic overtop of the foil (especially older ones), but most don't seem to.

      • Re:Put them to better use (Score:4, Informative)

        by nicholas645 ( 904033 ) on Thursday August 03, 2006 @11:03PM (#15844494)
        Read the article this afternoon at work.

        Actually used the Hair Gel trick today this evening on a Netflix DVD: The Collected Shorts by Jan Svankmajer that was horribly damaged.

        Alberto VO5 Hairdressing Gel for Men. The DVD, after about 19-20 minutes was basically unplayable, pixilation, video noise, no sound, etc.

        VO5 did the trick, thanks Slashdot.

  • Even Better (Score:5, Informative)

    by Billosaur ( 927319 ) * <wgrother@optonline. n e t> on Thursday August 03, 2006 @08:04AM (#15838862) Journal

    Just try using Pledge [lifehacker.com]. I actually did this with scratches on my glasses (the lenses are plastic) and it works pretty well. Note: you'll probably have to do it again in the future, as I'm not sure how long it will last on the CD.

    • Re:Even Better (Score:5, Funny)

      by cerberusss ( 660701 ) on Thursday August 03, 2006 @08:22AM (#15838999) Journal
      Just try using Pledge.
      Or, if that's not available, use K-Y Jelly!!

      Posting anon for obvious reasons... Oh and you have to put it ON THE CD

    • Re:Even Better (Score:2, Interesting)

      by BlueShirt ( 919167 )
      When I was fishing a few eeks ago, I accidently sprayed DEET (mosquito repellent contained in Deep-Woods Off) on one of my glasses' lens, which is plastic. I immediately dunked it in the lake and put them back on. I thought I had lost a lense but then I saw that the DEET had removed all the scratches on that lens. I haven't tried it on the other lens yet, but I will certainly give it a shot once I have my new glasses. I'm thinking of trying it on my scratched CDs, too.

    • Re:Even Better (Score:2, Informative)

      by BIZKeT ( 636677 )
      Pledge works very well. It is what I use as well as what I suggested to customers when I used to do technical support for GT Interactive / Humongous Entertainment.

    • Re:Even Better (Score:5, Interesting)

      by famebait ( 450028 ) on Thursday August 03, 2006 @09:04AM (#15839284)
      I've also tried various filling-in materials: chapstick, polishing wax, etc. They all seem to work as long as you can get the excess off cleanly. But I'm not certian if they work for the reason we like to think. One experiment left the scratch very visible, but the CD still working better. That got me wondering. So I tried filling with a positively opaque crayon (wiping away excess), and that worked too. I figured it could be done even quicker if I could skip the cleaning up, so I tried with a black fine-line felt marker, simly drawing a thin line on top of the scratch, and guess what: it not only worked fine, it could handle much larger defects than nothig else had been able to fix (well, actually there was a barely audible artifact, but aleast it played).

      It has to be sad: this was on music CDs, so you can lose quite a lot of bits without serious harm to the result (and even a slightly audible tick is something you can live with), so it's not a fir comparison to software. But it did make me wonder: do all those remedies really help the machine read more bits correctly by repairing the refrective plane, as it is tempting to believe? Or do they simply allow the built in error correction do its job, by blocking the area where the (clear but warped) surface of the sratch would otherwise make the laser lose its tracking?

      • Re:Even Better (Score:3, Informative)

        by Twylite ( 234238 )

        The audio CD format uses error correcting codes (See Reed-Solomon_error_correction [wikipedia.org]). I don't believe CDR data formats do (but I could be wrong about that). Anyway, it would appear that scratches are more likely to cause tracking errors than non-reflective marks, which makes it easier for the drive to access and error correcting codes and reconstruct the damage.

        The result is a CIRC that can completely correct error bursts up to 4000 bits, or about 2.5 mm on the disc surface. This code is so strong that m

        • Re:Even Better (Score:3, Informative)

          by Firethorn ( 177587 )
          The audio CD format uses error correcting codes. I don't believe CDR data formats do

          Actually, Data CD's [cdrfaq.org] do employ error correction codes, it's far more robust than for audio CD's. The need for a bit exact copy, while audio can get away with a certain amount of interpolation ensures that.

          It adds up [mrichter.com] to a 13% hit for the 'true' capacity of a CD. IE a 650MB data CD actually has 750MB of capacity, without ECC.

      • Re:Even Better (Score:5, Interesting)

        by poliopteragriseoapte ( 973295 ) on Thursday August 03, 2006 @10:24AM (#15839957)
        This is similar to how you fix scratches or defects on telescope or camera lenses. The problem in even a large scratch or defect is not the 1% of lens area that will be unable to gather light. Rather, it is the fact that light is scattered all around by the defect, lowering overall contrast. So what you do is paint the defect black. This way, you lose an insignificant amount of light, but the contrast of the image is unaffected.

        Perhaps for CDs there is a similar phenomenon. I am not sure how the error correction in a CD works, I am not sure whether it has the problem of "identifying" errors - I thought it simply applied to the data stream a standard decoding transform based on distance to a correct codeword. So perhaps part of the benefit of painting the defect black is that it cuts down on reflections, so that you can read neighbouring areas of the CD better?

      • Re:Even Better (Score:3, Interesting)

        by TubeSteak ( 669689 )

        But it did make me wonder: do all those remedies really help the machine read more bits correctly by repairing the refrective plane, as it is tempting to believe? Or do they simply allow the built in error correction do its job, by blocking the area where the (clear but warped) surface of the sratch would otherwise make the laser lose its tracking?

        I imagine you could find out by using cdparanoia http://www.xiph.org/paranoia/ [xiph.org] or EAC http://exactaudiocopy.de/ [exactaudiocopy.de]

        EAC will tell you exactly where it has trouble read

    • One day I couldn't get my scratched Windows install CD to work. Grabbed a white candle, rubbed it on the disc, then buffed it out with a cloth. You could still see the big scratches, but the disc worked fine after that.
      • One day I couldn't get my scratched Windows install CD to work. Grabbed a white candle, rubbed it on the disc, then buffed it out with a cloth. You could still see the big scratches, but the disc worked fine after that.
        As well as one could ever expect a windows cd to ever work, I'd imangine
    • For shallow scratches, you don't need anything but your finger and a cloth (like part of your t-shirt). Just rub it out with a perpendicular motion like you would a scratch on your car.

    • Re:Even Better (Score:5, Informative)

      by paganizer ( 566360 ) <thegrove1@@@hotmail...com> on Thursday August 03, 2006 @09:32AM (#15839544) Homepage Journal
      I never put anything on a CD that might somehow get on the lens.
      Pledge works pretty good, but I'll try pouring simmering water over them, first; IME it's the dust and crap trapped in the scratches that cause the laser to fail to read the data, get rid of that and you are go for a CloneCD session.
      The most extreme solution I tried was the plastic scratch protectors; put a very small amount of vegetable oil on the CD evenly, then put on the scratch protector; as long as the CD is clean clean clean before you put the oil on, and the top isn't scratched, it'll read once, guaranteed.

  • Scratched (Score:5, Funny)

    by HugePedlar ( 900427 ) on Thursday August 03, 2006 @08:05AM (#15838868) Homepage
    But does it work for CD recordings of old vynil records?
  • This Account Has Exceeded Its CPU Quota

    Guess we'll never know.

  • I received the following message: (Score:5, Funny)

    by sglider ( 648795 ) on Thursday August 03, 2006 @08:06AM (#15838878) Homepage Journal
    • If you are the webmaster, your account may have exceeded for one or more of the following reasons:
    • Your site has used more than 20% of the cpu.

      Understatement of the century.
  • Let me guess. He used toothpaste [g4tv.com].

  • Wow! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Aladrin ( 926209 ) on Thursday August 03, 2006 @08:07AM (#15838884)
    Wow, that is SO not what I thought the answer was!

    Aladrin Cache for those who missed it:

    "This Account Has Exceeded Its CPU Quota"

  • I always used unflavored plain chapstick (Score:5, Informative)

    by falloutboy ( 150069 ) on Thursday August 03, 2006 @08:07AM (#15838890)
    1. Wash the CD with hand soap and water
    2. Dry it off
    3. Put a little chapstick on the tip of your finger, rub it gently in a circular motion on the surface of the CD where the scratch is
    4. Wash again with hand soap and water

    This seemed to work pretty well for small scratches.
  • Well, the server isn't really Slashdotted ... but the account is.

    This Account Has Exceeded Its CPU Quota

    Please contact this site's webmaster.

    Wait a few minutes and use your browser's "Back" button or click here to try again.

    If you are the webmaster, your account may have exceeded for one or more of the following reasons:

    * Your site has used more than 20% of the cpu.
    * Your account has too many processes running at the same time.
    * Your site was consuming too many resources. This happen

  • You could still be fixing a cd (Score:5, Funny)

    by Whatsisname ( 891214 ) on Thursday August 03, 2006 @08:08AM (#15838911) Homepage
    Wow, that site got owned in less time than it takes to repair a CD!

  • Brasso works (Score:5, Informative)

    by JavaBrain ( 920722 ) on Thursday August 03, 2006 @08:08AM (#15838913)
    The site appears to be down? After visiting this website I've stuck to Brasso (and it really works great):

    http://www.burningissues.net/how_to/scratchrepair/ scratchrepair.htm [burningissues.net]

    • I concur. Brasso works far better than anything else I've ever tried. As long as the aluminum layer isn't scratched, Brasso will fix damn near any scratch. If the scratch is a particularly deep gouge, you can also boil the cd for about 60s to soften the plastic.

  • Article Text as site is down... (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 03, 2006 @08:09AM (#15838920)
    Scratched CDs? No Problem!
    Published July 27th, 2006 in Main

    We've all been there, bought a preowned game, put it excitedly into the console, then shouted "OMFGz0rWTF!?!?" as the console wouldn't recognise the game. Or perhaps you have a CD which contains important data, and M$ Windoze gives you a "Cyclic Redundancy Check" error (fancy way of saying 'Your disc is bloody SCRATCHED').

    Whatever your problem is, it's caused by the same thing: A scratch. A scratched CD or DVD is just annoying!

    So I took it upon myself to perform an experiment, to determine the very best way of dealing with a scratched disc. The limit I set myself, though, was that whatever I did it with must be somewhere in my house, and can't take longer than 5 minutes, including waiting time for things to dry, etc.

    I thought of three main ways to cope with scratches:

    1. Use an oily substance, or a gel, to fill in the scratch so that the laser goes straight through. This is the easiest option of the three.
    2. Use a mild abrasive to round the edges of the scratches so that the laser doesn't get scattered as much. This is probably the most feasible option of the three.
    3. Somehow take off a thin layer of plastic, removing the scratches altogether. This is the hardest, and probably impossible in 5 minutes with household items.

    How a CD works:

    I burnt 5 CDs with 6 songs on them:

    * Kings of Leon - Razz
    * Kings of Leon - Soft
    * The Libertines - What Katie Did
    * Kings of Leon - The Bucket
    * Kings of Leon - Velvet Snow
    * Kings of Leon - Taper Jean Girl

    I then proceeded to scratch a few of the CDs with a pair of scissors, nothing deep, just enough to make the XBox in which I was playing them get annoyed.

    The first thing I tried was plain old water, I know, sounds stupid... But the day before, I bought a game, which was scratched (not dirty, scratched). The first thing I tried was water, which I rubbed in gently, so that it stayed in the scratches, it then worked perfectly.

    Next I had to rub it. The only way to rub something off a CD, is with a lint free cloth, going out in spokes from the centre.

    Ok, so that didn't work too well on my test discs... Next up was, deodorant. I decided to use this, because it contained something oily (isopropyl myristate) which was dissolved in something volatile (denatured alcohol, propane, butane, isobutane, basically loads of hydrocarbons). So when I sprayed it on, I was hoping for the alcohols to evaporate while the isopropyl myristate separated into isopropyl and myristic acid to become oily and viscous, and stay in the cracks.

    I rubbed it in gently, just to get it into the cracks, but not to remove it, and then let it sit for two minutes. It evaporated, and when held against the light, the "rainbows" got scattered less. It looked hopeful. But it didn't work.

    Ok, next up is something I use to clean the fretboard on my guitar, Lem-oil. It's viscous and oily, and smells of lemon. I sprayed it on and this time had to rub slightly more vigourously, as it wasn't volatile enough to fit in with my 5 minute limit.

    I rubbed it in, and it sort of worked. The XBox loaded the CD, and played it, but it was really crackly and noisy. So it kind of worked, but Caleb sounded pissed off and sort of like a monster.

    Next I tried the method that a lot of people talk about: the toothpaste method. Toothpaste is a mild abrasive, and using it you should be able to round off the edges on the scratches. This method looked like it would work if I carried on, as the light was getting less scattered by the scratches, but I set myself a strict 5 minute time limit. To apply the toothpaste take the tiniest bit on the tip of your finger, and without touching the CD with your finger its self, apply

  • What also works (Score:4, Informative)

    by EEPROMS ( 889169 ) on Thursday August 03, 2006 @08:10AM (#15838927)
    I found WD-40 and 2-26 Electrolube works well with scratched DVD's, CD's.

    Lasts a few hours but long enough to recover the ISO or data.
    • Just wanted to say, thanks! Was just trying to find a way round my only copy of windows 2000 server OEM being unreadably scratched, and just tried WD40 plus a little rubbing from in-to-out with a cloth.

      Worked a treat, even on the long circular scratch going half way round the disc, which are the nastiest. Just successfully ripped an ISO of it. Cheers, if you're ever in Dorset, I owe you a beer!

  • Olive oil (Score:3, Informative)

    by mustafap ( 452510 ) on Thursday August 03, 2006 @08:10AM (#15838928) Homepage
    Can't see the web site, so don't know what they did.

    I've been using olive oil successfully for years. Pour a smal drop on and wipe over the surface with a lint free cloth. Recommend not reading the CD in your best drive though (although I have had no trouble)

    • Re:Olive oil (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Fred_A ( 10934 ) <(gro.emohsderf) (ta) (derf)> on Thursday August 03, 2006 @09:41AM (#15839617) Homepage
      Given the speed at which the drives rotate the discs, that's what I've been wondering with all those solutions involving fluids. There's bound to be droplets that fly away from the disk into the drive enclosure.

      Now depending on the location of the circuitry and the frequency of the use of "home repaired disks" this may or may not be an issue, but it certainly would make me a bit nervous...

  • I saw the actual site for those who missed it... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by plasmacutter ( 901737 ) on Thursday August 03, 2006 @08:15AM (#15838948)
    It was semi-diluted hair gel in a thin coat on the disk..

    That said, how is this any better than the scratched disk in the first place? Sure it might play once, but now you have bloody hair gel on your disk! that's even stickier and more fragile than the cheap plastic they used to make the disk.

    I like my solution better:
    download what was on the disk from somewhere else.

    Q: isn't that piracy?
    A: Does it really matter? they sold it to you on crappy cheap plastic.. it should be fair use to "repress" the cd/dvd you bought.
    • I agree with you that hair gel is not a good long-term solution to make a scratched disk playable. TFA used test CDs that contained music which I assume is commonly available, and your solution would work well to replace the music that was used on the test disks.

      Some scratched CDs/DVDs contain data that is not available anywhere else or may be difficult to find. Using hair gel on a scratched disk to salvage data is reasonable and it may be easier than finding replacement data, even if it is readily availa
    • except for console games -_- not gonna work that well, buddy

  • I don't want FOP Damn it, I'm a Dapper Dan Man! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Sporkinum ( 655143 ) on Thursday August 03, 2006 @08:17AM (#15838970)
    Hair Gel.. Whoda thunk it?
    "I like the smell of my hair treatment; the pleasing odor is half the point."

  • teaser (Score:5, Funny)

    by gEvil (beta) ( 945888 ) on Thursday August 03, 2006 @08:18AM (#15838975)
    Since the site seems to be down, I'll give everyone a small teaser from the final paragraph: I rubbed it first.

    Betcha can't guess what it is...Keep in mind his original criteria...
  • Yes, hair gel, and guess what... It worked! I applied it in much the same way as the toothpaste, except I didn't dribble water on it. I rubbed it first. Even though I applied it to one area, it ended up evenly spread around the whole disc. I then dribbled water on to loosen it up so I could rub the excess off.
    I'm bald, you insensitive clod!

  • My solution (Score:4, Informative)

    by Groovel76 ( 672885 ) on Thursday August 03, 2006 @08:24AM (#15839014)
    I used to work at PRS Guitars so I had access to 1000 - 2500 grit sandpaper (available at any auto store). Worked great! Just do a wet sanding with that stuff and you sand through the big scratches leaving very tiny scratches that don't give the laser any trouble. I would polish it with with some scratch removing car wax though the big rotary buffers at PRS worked much much better. I may have to try the hair gel for the polish next time though.
    • 80 grit sandpaper from your local hardware works fine as well. Try it, you'll be surprised!
  • Cool Dugg+...oh..WTF...wrong site?

  • Solution for slot-loading drives (Score:4, Funny)

    by eltonito ( 910528 ) on Thursday August 03, 2006 @08:28AM (#15839045)
    I put a little KY Jelly on the disk before I insert it into the slot. The CD player seems to whirr with joy!

  • Shouting "OMFGz0rWTF!?!?" (Score:5, Funny)

    by turthalion ( 891782 ) on Thursday August 03, 2006 @08:29AM (#15839053) Homepage
    From TFA:

    We've all been there, bought a preowned game, put it excitedly into the console, then shouted "OMFGz0rWTF!?!?"

    You know, I wonder how many of his readers have really shouted "OMFGz0rWTF!?!?"... I mean, how do you even say that? Where do you even start?

  • Car wax (Score:2, Informative)

    by kalla ( 254222 )
    Wax the surface of the disc - a decent carnauba car wax works fine. This fills in a lot of the minute surface scratches. It's improved the playability a lot of discs I had that were badly scratched.

  • In other news ... people still use CDs (Score:3, Insightful)

    by EaglesNest ( 524150 ) on Thursday August 03, 2006 @08:49AM (#15839177)
    About the only thing I use a CD for is Oblivion, Halo, and FEAR. ID Software has been kind enough to no longer require a CD be inserted just to play a game that is already on my hard disk. Half Life 2, of couse, has Steam.

    The premise of the article raises two questions:

    1. What the hell do people need CDs for?
    2. How in hell do these CDs get scratched? It's not a long distance from the CD tray to the jewel case.

    • From your statement I can infer

      1. you do not own a console game (for which discs are mandatory)
      2. you have no children
    • I've never been able to figure out how people manage to scratch a disc so badly that it causes read errors. I've been using CD's as long as anyone and I have yet to screw one up badly enough to notice. The only thing I can think of is maybe these people have, or are, children. That's one of the best arguments for fair-use copying of a DVD you already own, too - your 4-year-old kid wants to watch the latest Disney monstrosity 871 times a day and you just know one day your kid's going to decide to "make toast

    • Re:In other news ... people still use CDs (Score:4, Informative)

      by zakezuke ( 229119 ) on Thursday August 03, 2006 @09:22AM (#15839461)
      1. What the hell do people need CDs for?

      My first car only had an 8-track player. As a result I hit some thrift shops and bought some 8-tracks. My current car has a CD player, and I use CDs in it. Software is still released on CD for the most part, and they are rather handy to have to boot a pc in the unlikely event the HD gets buggered. Laptop users "should" at the very least carry one disc with them in this unlikely event.

      2. How in hell do these CDs get scratched? It's not a long distance from the CD tray to the jewel case.

      Many things don't come in a jewel case, they only come in a paper sleave. Anyhow jewel cases, while they are my most used disc transport vehicel, are not the most reliable suckers on earth. Those hinges tend to break if you look at them funny. Put a jewel case in a bag, hit the bag in the just right way, hinge cracks and disc falls out. I find that slim jewels tend to be more resistant to such breakage. While I favorite for size reasons, I must admit I prefer the long box and thin long box in the fact that they take the most damage without worry of the disc falling out.

  • Brasso - Works Great! (Score:2, Informative)

    by tbcpp ( 797625 )
    I work (and live) at a military style academy. And seeing as we have to shine everything from buckles to brass railings, there seems to be a odd facination with Brasso here. Someone tried it on a cd and it works! Just put a bit on and shine it up. Whipe it off when you're done.

  • Workaholics! (Score:5, Interesting)

    by inviolet ( 797804 ) <slashdot@@@ideasmatter...org> on Thursday August 03, 2006 @09:00AM (#15839254) Journal

    Wax? Pledge? Toothpaste? Buffing?

    Y'all are a bunch of workaholics.

    Just lightly wave a propane or butane torch over the scratches.

    It works for all polycarbonates, including CDs, DVDs, helmet visors, motorcycle windshields, airplane windshields, cellphone screens.

    The trick is to wave the flame over it so very very lightly and quickly, that the rough edges of the scratch briefly melt and flow.

    • Re:Workaholics! (Score:5, Informative)

      by Jonah Hex ( 651948 ) <<hexdotms> <at> <gmail.com>> on Thursday August 03, 2006 @11:08AM (#15840282) Homepage Journal
      I second this, I've been using flame to fix plastics for many years. A few words of caution:
      Be sure and use a "clean" burning flame, most pocket lighters, etc have impurities that can leave residue behind. Definitely do not use a candle.
      The best method I've found is to lay the object flat and pass the flame over it (as mentioned in parent), as opposed to holding the object above the flame. Since the majority of the heat (and any burning impurities) are rising upwards this gives a more even melt with less chance of excessive melting.
       
      Jonah HEX
  • Yea, but all those solutions are based on waxy substances. My PS2, DVD player (x2), CD player, etc all get hot after a while. Won't that melt the waxy subtance, which will then get on the inside of your media player?

  • Brasso (Score:3, Informative)

    by Bluesman ( 104513 ) on Thursday August 03, 2006 @09:11AM (#15839348) Homepage
    Find it in the hardware store or Target.

    Use a cloth, apply Brasso in a circular motion, let dry. Wipe Brasso off with same cloth, using a decent amount of force. Brasso is a really good mildly abrasive polishing compound, and enough applications will erase any scratch.

    Cleaned my whole CD collection this way.
  • Just google for "plastic polish" or "acrylic polish" and pick one with your favorite color of bottle. Most are available in various grits, from clean to polish to obliterate, so start off gently.

    Then, since you "own" a "license" to the disks that are already scratched all the way through, download both tracks that you really like and burn 'em on a new cd.

    And that acrylic polish will also clean up your non-sahpire watch crystal.

  • I would hope, that anyone who had to polish, melt, or wax a CD in order to be able to read it, would have the sense to *immediately read the entire disc and make a new copy onto a new, undamaged disc*, but some of the comments seem to suggest people are doing this and then continuing to rely on the repaied CD.

    The repair just isnt gonna last - if you had to resort to such measures once becuase you didn't have a backup, surely you've learned your lesson, right?

  • Conincidental "How To" (Score:2, Informative)

    by rkowen ( 135560 )
    Coincidentally there's a recent "How To" on how to fix a scratched CD
    at http://www.wikihow.com/Fix-a-Scratched-CD [wikihow.com]
    The nearly last ditch effort is to use vaseline (a lot like hair gel).
    However, it's not a long lasting solution. Just long enough to burn a new CD.
  • This doesn't handle the big deep scratches, of course, but it seemed to do pretty well for me at fixing scuff marks & small scratches.

    Actually, the _worst_ thing I've ever done to one of my CDs was try and "fix" it using one of those "scratch-fixing" kits from the Video store - the stupid kit destroyed the surface of the disc so badly I thought I'd never be able to use it again.

  • For those in the know.... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Khyber ( 864651 ) <techkitsune@gmail.com> on Thursday August 03, 2006 @11:58AM (#15840711) Homepage Journal
    Take a lesson from the cleaning industry - Pledge is NOT a good solution for CDs due to the residue that's leftover and begins to cloud on the CD's surface. If you want to repair scratches, you're far better off using good old Turtle Wax. Two good coats will repair most surface scratches and it doesn't require nearly as many re-applications as pledge would, plus it's lots cheaper on your budget than buying a bunch of pledge, since a little wax goes a loooong way.

  • To polish out scratches...Wright's Silver Creme (Score:3, Insightful)

    by unitron ( 5733 ) on Thursday August 03, 2006 @09:19PM (#15844157) Homepage Journal
    To polish out scratches (rather than 'fill them in'), I've found that Wright's Silver Creme, a silverware polish, works well. Use the enclosed sponge to apply.

    Just remember, as with any treatment, rub straight out from the center, at a right angle to the tracks, and never around the disc in a circular motion.

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