I have a big problem (damaged DVD?)

[Caliburn]

A bit off topic, but I can't resist... My M2 DVD wouldn't run on my brand new DVD drive for something like 3 months, until I got my third DVD Firmware update. Usually the computer just throws up on you, but at times you get something sweet.

I hope you'll get your problems fixed.

[Agent Smith]

Just as an update:

My buddy at school had one of those DVD cleaning machines (the guy's got everything in this electronics shop of his...including a freakin' borescope, but that's beside the point). It ended up doing the trick.

Needless to say, I've back up both DVDs and kept all patch .exe files as backup. I am NOT having this problem again!

[TinCow]

Since we're talking about fixing damaged disks, I figured I'd toss in this budget solution.

I had a game disc (Sid Meier's Gettysburg) that would not play due to a scratch. The scratch in question was very deep, caused the install to fail, and made the disc generally unreadable. I had tried everything possible to fix it and had no luck. I was about to throw it away as a lost cause, when I figured I would try to remove the scratch manually. Since I was going to toss it anyway, there wasn't anything to be lost by ruining the disc further.

I eventually came upon the idea of using a soft abrasive to sand down the disc until the scratch was gone. For reasons I cannot remember, I decided to try using Soft Scrub on a soft cloth of the type you use to clean glasses (spectacles). It worked well and soon the scratch was gone, but the process left the entire area of the CD covered in a lightly cloudy blur of nearly microscopic abrasion scratches. As it turned out, these tiny scratches were not large enough to interfere with the laser, and the CD become fully readable again.

So, if you've got a disc that won't play because of scratches, you don't have one of these fancy commercial CD repair devices, and you're about to throw the disc out anyway, check under your sink for a soft abrasive cleaning liquid. You might save yourself a few bucks.