How to Clean CD Player Lasers

If your CD player skips or sounds less than perfect, the laser may need to be cleaned. These steps show you how to clean CD player lasers.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Screwdriver
• Cotton swab,
• WD-40
• Paper towel
• Rubbing alcohol

How to Clean CD Player Lasers in 5 Steps

1. Open the CD tray and turn the power off.

2. Remove the cover of the CD player. Usually, there are just a couple of screws you'll need to remove to take off the cover. Once it's off, you have easy access to the laser. If you have a top-loading CD player you probably don't even need to unscrew or remove anything, since most don't have covers over the laser.

3. The laser moves from the edge of the CD to the center on tracks when it's playing. Greasing the tracks ensures smooth movement. Take a cotton swab and spray it with WD-40. Dab at the swab with a paper towel so it's not dripping, then carefully grease the laser's tracks. You must move the laser to clean the part of the track it's sitting on. To do this, turn the largest of the cogwheels very gently.

4. Saturate another cotton swab with rubbing alcohol. Again, dab at the swab with a paper towel until it is damp, not wet. Gently rub the laser lens with the swab to clean it. Repeat with a second swab, then wait a few minutes for the lens to dry.

5. Reassemble the CD player cover, turn it on and you're ready to play a CD.

Tips & Warnings

• Be careful not to tighten the screws too much if you have a plastic cover, or you may crack it. You can also buy CD laser cleaners, although they generally aren't as effective as manual cleaning. These cleaning CDs look like regular CDs, except they have brushes attached to them that "sweep" the laser clean. You may need to play these cleaning CDs several times depending on how dirty your laser lens is. If your CD player still won't read CDs after you clean the laser, make sure you're not using a recordable CD. Many older CD players won't read recordable CDs.
• If all your cleaning efforts fail, take the CD player to a professional to be fixed. Tinkering with the electronics is difficult, possibly dangerous and not for amateurs.