Sticky CDs or Player?

Margaret_Skinner

During the recent cold spell the CDs in my car started jumping - well not by themselves - just when I was trying to play them! One or two had occasionally jumped before but nothing major. In December though it seemed every one I put in was doing it and I don't know whether it's the player or the CDs.

Would the cold affect that? And is there anything I could try doing to the CDs to see if I can improve performance? I've heard things like rubbing them with toothpaste and all sorts!

Atomicide

It could be purely to do with the cold. In certain circumstances, the CD's or the lens in the CD player can fog up.

If its the CD's you can try drying them with a lint free cloth (cloths that don't leave fibres behind).

If its the lens, theres not much you can do except hope the heat in the car clears the fog for you, though taking any CD's that are in there out will help speed up the process a bit.

Things like toothpaste etc are only good when you need to smooth out a scratch in the CD. Its usually only worth it as a last resort because sometimes it can make the problem worse.

fwor

As above, it may be condensation, but it may also be hardening of the lubricant that they apply to the slider that the laser head runs on - this often happens on older CD players, and would be worst in the cold.

It's easy to solve (just apply silicon oil or light grease to the rod) but unfortunately it's a real pain to strip the mechanism down to get access to it.

Margaret_Skinner

Thanks both - I'll try taking the CDs out first and wiping them with a lint-free cloth and see if that makes any difference. Bought a new CD a few weeks ago and it seems to be playing okay so that's what was making me think it could just be the CDs themselves.

Thanks for advice - greatly appreciated!