MZ-N510 starting to die

[ro0tz]

Since a short while, my MZ-N510 has been acting strange.

When I try to record things @ LP2 using Sonicstage, and I try to transfer an album, sometimes all songs get transferred okay, but some songs don't.

Then I try again, and still the same songs refuse to transfer.

Then I switch disks around a bit, and then it works, but very slow.

Also when I want to delete some songs/groups from a disk, it takes AGES to complete, and sometimes the devices just keeps spinning for hours, all frozen up...

Yesterday a certain disc played perfectly fine, but today the same disc takes 30 seconds to spin up, then finally plays.

When I switch to the next song, again it takes 10 seconds to start...

Does this mean my optic lens is dying?

Should I try to clean it with a Qtip and some rubbing alcohol?

By the way I use 80 minute Sony Premium discs (the gold ones),

and I've always handled my MD with care.

I'm using SS 3.4

[KrazyIvan]

I would get a MD cleaning disc but you can try the Q-tip trick. I would try blowing out any dust with a can of compressed air first. Then I would clean with denatured alcohol.