Removing disc scratches at home?

[CatalystiCam]

Hey guys, I recently bought a ps2 since they were on sale for 40 dollars on boxing week. I kept a couple of games I really liked for the 4 years that I didn't have a ps2 after the last one hopelessly broke down.

the games I have had suffered a lot of wear and tear after getting stuck in my brothers collection of cds and dvds and him leaving them out of there cases. One game; ATV 4 is pretty beaten up but works perfect as well as 3 used games I bought that could be in better shape also work perfect (other than atv 1 slowing down on memory card screens). The other game I kept; an nhl game likes to freeze after every single game I finished making it impossible to run franchise mode and continue on. I can't find a single place that does disc cleanings here for the life of me. There were several back in edmonton, but not here yet.

I've got nothing to lose here, I just want the game to work again or for me to find another used copy. Reason being that I ask this is that the scratches are all so minor you can't see them without light reflecting directly off them unlike my other games where there is plenty of visible scratches. There is thousands of tiny very thin scratches on the disc and I want to fix it.

[Dudebro]

Most retail stores sell disc scratch repair kits but if you go to a game store they usually have ones specifically for video games(not DVDs, CD or Bluray). I know they have ones people call grinders that take layers off the disc but if it's done too much or the scratch is too deep it will ruin the game. Be careful and be sure before you do it.

[CatalystiCam]

I haven't heard many excellent things about the scratch kits unfortunately.

I'll keep asking stores but isn't there something like rubbing alcohol that would help? I'm not sure what would work but if there is anything I can buffer the scratches out with at home that would be great, though its probably not realistic...

[Slime Slayer]

Polish it with toothpaste.

[StarfoxFan2009]

try toothpaste. not the gel kind either or it may screw your game up

[Dudebro]

Does that actually work? If so why specifically toothpaste? I know they sell repair kits that just fill holes but I doubt they use toothpaste for that. Also, if any of his games skip or freeze up because of scratches this probably won't fix it, he'd need something that takes off a layer(if the scratch isn't too deep).

[StarfoxFan2009]

yeah it works Dudebro. It fixed my Madden 07 game on PS2.

[Kong]

Toothpaste is gritty soap. It polishes things.

Use a pencil eraser or your finger and water and toothpaste.

[Dudebro]

I figured toothpaste would be too abrasive and cause more problems. Interesting.

[fungusman]

@dudebro the irony is that those kits in stores are brutal for CD's. My buddy who worked at a used game store went through some and they would damage almost all the merch. Toothpaste can be bad if it's not entirely cleaned off.

On a related note, leaving cd's under a lamp is bad for them.

[Tails]

Magic Genie?

[Dudebro]

@fungusman- I know they aren't the best solution but I know from experience that they can salvage an otherwise unusable disc. Like I said above though, it can ruin the disc completely if it grinds too much off. I'd say it's a good last resort.

[CatalystiCam]

he'd need something that takes off a layer(if the scratch isn't too deep).

There is thousands of very, very minor scratches on my disc like I said.

@Everyone else, I've actually been trying the toothpaste thing over the last few days and whatnot and I didn't think it was working since nothing has changed really. I think maybe the scratches receded to the thousands of very, very minor ones I see now but there is still the odd scratch or two that is minor or visible in any case. I think there is 2 scratches like this and they aren't very big at all.

the thing I'm wondering is if specific data is stored in specific spots of the disc and maybe the game finishing at the end of the 3rd period is the part blocked by one of these visible scratches. I don't know much about how discs work unfortunately but I'm still not having luck today. I tried toothpaste today again twice actually and I played the game, got through 1 franchise game then it froze at the end of the next. I tried the game again and right at the end of the third period it froze again.

I really don't get it since it's only this specific part of the game, i runs perfect other than here. As soon as the period ends it freezes, you hear the bell, the announcers say a thing or two more and it remains like that afterwards.

[Dudebro]

There is thousands of very, very minor scratches on my disc like I said.
I know but I was saying if that comes up at some point.

I have no idea how info is stored on a disc but I know I've had games lock up or be unplayable at certain points because of one specific scratch. It seems entirely possible that a scratch on a certain spot would cause a very specific problem that might not be immediately apparent. You might end up having to grind a layer off if nothing else works.

[RU Joe]

How exactly does one do this?
I can't imagine that randomly scraping what is essentially a plastic lens with an abrasive can help.
Are you following the 'straight lines radiating from center to outer edge' rule, or is there another method?

I notice that the machines don't follow that rule {which is actually for light cleaning, not removing scratches} so what's the real deal?

[Dudebro]

I don't really know but I assume it's because of the way it's made, something to do with being layered maybe?

[Slime Slayer]

It's kinda like a warped record will play, but a scratched one will skip. Your just smoothing out the scratch until it be comes a warp.

[CatalystiCam]

yeah it might be those bigger scratches, I know the ps2s are pretty good about reading through scratches so I'm sure the minor ones don't phase it. At least as long as the consoles running well unlike my last one that broke and read virtually no discs 4 years ago. As well as the one I bought a week ago that had a lot of noises being made and disc read errors for almost every game, I had to return it for this one which is running perfect but i'm still weary of the ps2s extended reliability for this.

Anyways, the console is running great, it is in fact brand new for a used price. (Some guy thought he was buying a ps3 and bought a silver slim ps2 instead and returned it right away and they gave it to me in exchange for the one that was used, and wasn't working). It reads all my other games fine as I said so I assumed it was just the old one since atv 1 was freezing at the memory card manager before and atv was freezing at the race load screen also so I assumed that issue would be gone with nhl 2003 and the third period as well on the new ps2.

[Demon-Mask]

It seems entirely possible that a scratch on a certain spot would cause a very specific problem that might not be immediately apparent.
That's how it works. Specific spots for specific data, like the grooves in a record.

the thing I'm wondering is if specific data is stored in specific spots of the disc and maybe the game finishing at the end of the 3rd period is the part blocked by one of these visible scratches. I don't know much about how discs work unfortunately but I'm still not having luck today. I tried toothpaste today again twice actually and I played the game, got through 1 franchise game then it froze at the end of the next. I tried the game again and right at the end of the third period it froze again.
Of course specific data is stored in specific spots on the disk, otherwise you'd end up with something that resembles Pac-Man's killscreen.
I don't mean to be rude about it.

Umm... to fix disks? Since a PS2 game is literally the same thing as a DVD, do what you'd do there. I recommend rubbing alcohol to clean them, use a dry microfiber towel {like a shamwow} to smooth out the scratch, it will take time, but eventually it will work.

[CatalystiCam]

so, would you say odds are one of the thicker 2 scratches are blocking the spot the data's in or could one of the barely visible ones be doing that as well?

[Demon-Mask]

If the issue is something major, I'd say the odds are on the thick scratches blocking the data that is not loading. It's more an issue of depth than width though. I'd deal with the larger scratches first, if possible.

[CatalystiCam]

I've been trying and trying today to fix this, nothing makes it better really. I actually remember a lot of scratches being quite thick that are now gone but there are only a few now. I worked away purposely at one of the bad parts forever and it did absolutely nothing

Use a pencil eraser

This made things worse that I had to fix :-/

[Dudebro]

Again I'm not expert on this but, rubbing off scratches all day long might be counterproductive and ruining the game. You can only go so far before you wipe away something important.

[CatalystiCam]

I don't believe I can actually wipe away disc without a machine that is meant to do that doing it for me.

Anyways, freakish thing happened. I'm still trying the game and I just successfully got through 2 games. It froze at the end of each game and at the first one I just sat there in disappointment then I heard the disc stop then boot up again. I figured it was just trying to read it but suddenly the announcers came back on and I saw the players walking to the bench and the 3 stars and what not like it should do.

I'm shocked, it freezes for like 30 seconds before continuing but when it freezes nothing but the crowd is still playing (the noise that is).
I did change something in settings I noticed which is the disc speed. You can set it to fast or normal. I set it to fast and I wonder if that has anything to do with it?

[Slime Slayer]

The data is located just under the lable, you arnt gonna polish to the point where you actually touch the stored information.

---------- Post added at 05:23 AM ---------- Previous post was at 05:22 AM ----------

And don't forget Cam, disks do have a lifespan witch varies from cd to cd and burn to burn, it could be that the cd is just too old.

[CatalystiCam]

really, that far down? Yeah I got plenty of space left then. Also the games done that for 2 games now, same thing. I'm trying a third game. Glad to know I'm finally getting through franchise mode for now.

[Dudebro]

You may not be able to wear it down to the info but you could possibly smear a bunch of little scratches onto it by over doing it, right?

[CatalystiCam]

I remember you and seahawk mentioning that when I was having issues with a dreamcast game I burned but A; That was a Cd, this is a dvd. B; I believe official discs last longer than burned ones, correct?

---------- Post added at 10:26 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:25 PM ----------

You may not be able to wear it down to the info but you could possibly smear a bunch of little scratches onto it by over doing it, right?

The only additional residue that appeared was from the eraser and I managed to clear that all up.

[Dudebro]

What I'm talking about is very fine scratches that would be hard to see. I could be totally wrong but I assume any consistent rubbing with abrasion could lead to ruining it eventually.

[CatalystiCam]

perhaps but its running fine other than the freeze at the end of a game and I just played through a third straight game where it resumed after 20-30 seconds. I wonder if it was doing this all along because the toothpaste never did much.

[Normdogg]

One thing that I have had luck with is car wax or turtle wax. If the disk isn't too scratched up, you can probably fix it with the wax.

[RU Joe]

What do you do with the wax, ND?
Do you follow the rule of 'straight lines radiating directly from center to edge'?

[Normdogg]

Sorry for being late. I actually take a cloth and go around the disc with it in a circular motion. I then let it dry into a powder, then wipe the powder off in a straight line from inside to outside of the disc. Another thing you can try is furniture polish. I hear that works pretty good too.

[Gamenguru]

I have a machine I bought a few years ago called the Skip Doctor (Image below) that I've used to repair everything from scratched music CD's to badly damaged video games. I've always just used a water-based solution with it, but I'm sure it would work with a variety of polishing compounds.


http://www.the-nextlevel.com/features/hardware/doctor/skip-md.jpg

[Demon-Mask]

Do you follow the rule of 'straight lines radiating directly from center to edge'?
Seems like the most logical idea, though I wouldn't trust myself with wax, too much temptation to do the whole "Wax on wax off." thing for hours.

[TheGuardian]

I have to ask because I haven't seen anyone say anything about it. Are the more prominent scratches Radial (going from middle-to-edge of disc) or Circular (Following the spin of the disc) Circular scratches are what cause the most problems because of the laser's tracking while reading the disc. Since those scratches follow the spin of the disc the laser basically gets derailed because it deflects off the scratch and moved to another point in the data which doesn't coincide with what it just read, so it tries over and over to read that point. It won't be able to hit that section so it won't be able to progress. Radial scratches don't deflect the laser that long because it's more like a speedbump, if you get it small enough the laser will deflect for just a very small fraction of a second and won't lose much (if any) data from reading the disc.

Deep circular scratches are what ruin CDs for the most part. It's very hard to fix them without grinding down. This is also why the CD grinding tools you see have a grindwheel that rubs on the disc from the center to the rim instead of a plate that just sits on the disc and grinds it all at once by spinning them opposite of each other.

(I know it's like a month later but I used to repair discs myself all the time and the topic caught my eye. after reading thought maybe I would share that piece of info so more people can understand what's happening and why certain scratches can ruin a game when another can be scratched to hell and still work fine)

[RU Joe]

Hi TheGuardian, and welcome to RU, the best site on the net!
{forgive me if I greeted you already, I'm just friendly that way}

I believe you're right about the direction of the scratches on the disk.
Oversampling seems to eliminate most of the smaller problems.
From what I've seen the best results are from the machines; I found a game in a pawnshop whose disk looked dog - chewed {Rover is a smart dog - he can retrieve disks!} and wasn't going to buy it when the guy said:
'No problem, I can fix this.'
Sure enough, he came back a couple of minutes later with what appeared to be a brand new disk.
I even said to him
'You're joking, right? This is a different disk, isn't it?'
But no, it was the very same one.

So for my money, I go get someone like him to get the scratches out.
This particular place charges $2 a disk.