HOW TO CLEAN SCRATCHES
We've all experienced scratches in our cd's and I'm sure that some of you have tried some pretty off the wall ideas to get them out. Well I've done some research and thought that it would be useful to put a couple of ideas on this site. Hopefully they will help you restore that favorite cd of your's so you can get back to doing whatever you were doing be be be be before it started skipping.
PS. If they don't work it's not my fault!!!!!
If you are too cheap to go out and buy the professional cleaning kits, then these might work for you.
For dirty surfaces you can use a little detergent and your finger. Don't use a sponge or anything like that, because it can scratch the surface. Just GENTLY rub it with your finger and then rinse it off and check to see if it is playing.
If it still isn't playing, then that means that there is a scratch. The data stored on the disc is more than likely ok, the laser is just being disrupted by the scratch, so it can't read the pits and retrieve the data. So here are some ideas on how to fill in the scratches.
"Use toothpaste. Polish the scratches with a cotton swab, rubbing gently the swab over the scratches until they disappear or until you notice that you have removed them as far as possible. Sometimes the paste may cause new scratching, but it will be merely superficial and easily removed. After clearing the scratches, wash the CD in water.
If there are still scratches that the toothpaste has not managed to removed, use a metal polish (Brasso) in the same way as described above. Finally, rub Vaseline on the CD, very gently (do not press hard), from moving out from the center to the rim. "(Torres, Gabriel)