Minidisc lens and recording head cleaners: Are they safe?

[Sony_Fan]

Is there any danger using one of those minidisc lens cleaners or recording head cleaners? Any studies or experiences to support the use of them or to discourage the use of them? Thanks.

[PhilippeC]

A good swab with some isopropylic or ethanol diluted alcool drops on it is good enough for me

[Jimma]

Lens cleaning discs are a bit of a waste of time. The may remove a small quantity of dust but not a lot else. Head cleaning discs can be more useful, especially as the head is generally harder to clean manually than the lense. I've had decks with dirty record heads where I've been experiencing drop outs in recordings where a head cleaning disc has sorted it out nicely.

Generally speaking though, unless you've actually got problems, I wouldn't even bother.

I have a head cleaner and since 1998 I've had to use it twice.

As Philippe corectly says, a very gentle wipe with alcohol on a cotton bud works wonders.

I recently repaired a pair of cd decks where both lenses were useless due to being completely coated from the user's heavy smoking. Some cotton buds and tape deck head cleaning fluid soon brought them back to life.

[Sony_Fan]

Ok, now if a minidisc player has trouble reading the disc with sound dropping off and stalling, is this something more serious than just a dirty lense.

[Soundbox]

Ok, now if a minidisc player has trouble reading the disc with sound dropping off and stalling, is this something more serious than just a dirty lense.

Well a dirty lens will cause problems (especially if the unit has been used in a smokers house) so a lens clean is a first port of call. Nex common thing is a failing laser which causes disk read problems. If the laser is failing, going from the last track back to the first track with the disk playing takes a long time with much skiffing as the lens hunts for focus. But clean the lens first!

[jim.hoggarth]

A laser cleaning disc or even a swab with alcohol does not always do the trick. If the optics are 'open', as is usually the case on minidisc pickups, the tarnish which covers the objective lens will also adhere to the light bending prism and laser diode window. As these cannot easily be accessed, once bunged up with tar and nicotine the laser is just about useless. But if the optics are fully or even partially sealed, just cleaning the objective lens can work a treat.

The answer, of course, is to not smoke in the first place. As an ex-smoker (13 years and counting) I can tell you I now hate opening up a unit from a smoker. In the worst of cases you can actually feel the sticky residue on the cases. Yuck!

Jim

[mdsince93']

I have been using the official Sony MD-6LCL cleaner for years with no issues.

It has a small soft brush imbeded into the disc on the pickup side only.

Riddle me this- On the packaging it warns consumers to never use the md-6LCL in a car MD unit.

Anyone know why?

[Sony_Fan]

I have been using the official Sony MD-6LCL cleaner for years with no issues.

It has a small soft brush imbeded into the disc on the pickup side only.

Riddle me this- On the packaging it warns consumers to never use the md-6LCL in a car MD unit.

Anyone know why?

I'm assuming with sudden bumps on the road, it could cause the pick up lens to touch that small part that the brush is embedded to. This would probably scratch or damage the laser lens.

[sfbp]

I have been using the official Sony MD-6LCL cleaner for years with no issues.

It has a small soft brush imbeded into the disc on the pickup side only.

Riddle me this- On the packaging it warns consumers to never use the md-6LCL in a car MD unit.

Anyone know why?

I would think that since there's no overwrite head, the clearance on the upper side of the disk is significantly reduced Jim has probably had some of these apart, I never touched my CA790X though. With reduced clearance (ie the overwrite head isn't lifting out of the way because there's no head) perhaps the cleaning disk somehow messes up?

[jim.hoggarth]

No idea. But if I find time, I will get an old deck out and try plugging a cleaning disc in, just for the sheer hell of it.

Jim

[Sony_Fan]

No idea. But if I find time, I will get an old deck out and try plugging a cleaning disc in, just for the sheer hell of it.

Jim

I don't think anything bad will happen. I think the warning to not use them is when the car is moving.

[jim.hoggarth]

I may have had one of my 'Eureka' moments. The MD drives in auto decks are self-aligning. The cleaning discs have a pretty wierd format, if I remember. Perhaps they screw up the EEPROM settings on such a deck?

Jim

[mdsince93']

Interesting, so the car decks auto adjust when a new disc is inserted?it makes sense that due to the constant vibrations and heat from the car the alignment function was implemented.

i wounder if the MD staker units or changers were also self aligning.They have some rudimentary foam padding that provided some good shock absorbtion from the internal case to the 6 disc magazine.

[SileEeles]

I've only read that you can't use them in ... oh, what was it ... "in car MD auto-changers" not that I've ever heard of something myself personally. As far as the usefulness goes, I got the lends cleaner and head cleaner on ebay for 0.99p since no one else bid on them haha.

I've used them once just because I don't know how used the devices I have were, I mean they both work ok, but I can't speak for the internals, at least on the MZ-N510 anyway. I figured do it once so I know things should be OK and then if a problem crops up, I will use them again. Better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.

[sfbp]

The cleaning discs have a pretty wierd format, if I remember.

I imagine what they might do is to force the head to travel all over the disk when it reads the first (and only?) file containing (music) data. This can be done by deliberately allocating data (from the FAT or whatever table is used to control allocation of clusters to music recordings) in an order that is scattered all over the surface, specifically in-and-out. I've never purchased one because I don't believe in the concept of cleaning. This goes back to floppies where someone once taught me that manufacturer's recommendation "clean the heads if they are dirty". There is, in my book, no reason ever to clean media-reading heads (magnetic or optical) on a regular basis.

Interesting, because I was under the strong impression that CD cleaning disks I have bought do nothing of the sort, but are simply CD-shaped fibre suitable for cleaning.

[SileEeles]

I imagine what they might do is to force the head to travel all over the disk when it reads the first (and only?) file containing (music) data. This can be done by deliberately allocating data (from the FAT or whatever table is used to control allocation of clusters to music recordings) in an order that is scattered all over the surface, specifically in-and-out. I've never purchased one because I don't believe in the concept of cleaning. This goes back to floppies where someone once taught me that manufacturer's recommendation "clean the heads if they are dirty". There is, in my book, no reason ever to clean media-reading heads (magnetic or optical) on a regular basis.

Interesting, because I was under the strong impression that CD cleaning disks I have bought do nothing of the sort, but are simply CD-shaped fibre suitable for cleaning.

From what I observed when I had the lens cleaning disc in the deck, and the top off of the deck, it simply moves from one track to the next, which is allocated far enough away that the lens will pass under the brush on its travels. As far as the magnetic had cleaner goes, its just a fabric surface on top where the recording layer is. Oddly enough, it doesn't stop the recording of audio in the slightest, but it could vary from one manufacturer to the next, my cleaning discs are TDK.

If taken care of, then I believe you are right. As I said the only reason I did it was because I didn't know what state certainly the MZ-N510 had come from, and it gives me piece of mine. I imagine I won't need to do either again for a while.