How To Clean Macbook Pro Optical Drive

The first sign of malfunction was that the MBP started to exist picky almost what sort of blank CDs/DVDs information technology would have for writing. This was not a big deal since it still accustomed 9 out of 10 CDs without any problems.

Some time later on I had a failed burning. The burn process started OK, but near the end (or maybe during writing the lead out?) information technology failed with some mysterious error message. This was quite strange, but I was still not very suspicious (this is my start Mac and having grown up using PCs with Windows I got used to failures).

However lately I started to have problems even reading my CDs and DVDs. This was the concluding drib of water in the glass. Every sign pointed to either a cleaved optical drive or malfunction due to dusty lens. I already had issue with grit on the lens of various CD/DVD drives in the household (eg. the Hullo-Fi system and my sometime PC had problems reading CDs too and a transmission cleaning of the lens helped - I tried a lens cleaning kit too, but it was worth naught).

So I was upwards and prepare for cleaning the lens of the MacBook Pro's SuperDrive, however I was a flake unsure almost whether there's whatsoever gotcha in taking the SuperDrive apart. I had no difficulties with my sometime PC's 5.25" Plextor DVD-writer (you just had to remove the screws from the drive's case and have off the upper part and the lens was right there), but I've never taken autonomously a slot-loading drive. Notebook optical drives are a lot smaller and I wanted to encounter some proof-of-concept photos to get reassurance. After having spent some time with Google, I've stumbled on a discussion thread on Apple's forums that contained a few pics of a slot-loading SuperDrive's internals. Information technology didn't seem risky to have autonomously so I started the process.

Update: some people had success using a plastic card (eg. a credit carte du jour or a drivers license) and some fine material (the ones that you used to clean your glasses with). Some applied alcohol to improve the cleaning effect (simply I personally only use benzine). The plastic menu method might spare you taking apart the MBP, so information technology's worth to check out the comments and read through the experiences of others before yous start to dismantle yours. You should as well know that a few people reported broken drives after the cleaning. However my all-time gauge is that information technology had nothing to practise with the cleaning itself (I've already completed this process on a number of PCs, my MBP, a number of desktop DVD players and Hi-Fi systems and never had whatsoever problems).

The showtime step is to take apart the MacBook Pro. iFixit has a very detailed guide on how to do this, and then I'll skip over that. After y'all got the optical drive out from the MBP, you lot place it on your workpad like this:

As you can see, I've kept the record on the ribbon cable. I didn't see any reason to remove it. If you've followed the iFixit guide til the end, y'all've already removed the mounting brackets from the drive. You should memorize which bracket goes to which side and which screw goes into which hole. Otherwise the reassembly will be a niggling bit catchy for yous.
I've taken some pictures of the brackets, it seemed to exist the fastest way to have a snapshot of the original mounting of the brackets.

Subsequently you've removed the brackets, you've to take off the 4 screws that keep the lower and the upper half of the unit of measurement'due south case together. Here's a moving-picture show with all the brackets and these four additional screws taken off:

Now you tin can remove the upper function of the instance. It'southward really easy to do, just do it slowly, no demand to hurry. Y'all'll get to run into something like this:

Hither I've fatigued a small-scale red circle around the lens:

For cleaning the lens I utilise benzine (the one used for medical disinfection ... nosotros used to have a bottle of this at home): information technology's bang-up dissolvent (eg. to remove mucilage that remained on a newly bought production after having removed the cost sticker) and information technology evaporates practically without a trace. It's perfect for this kind of a job (nonetheless I've read that some people prefer to use some kind of alcohol).

To apply the benzine to the lens surface I use q-tips (that should non be hard to get either ):

After the cleaning the lens is every bit practiced as new:

Reassembling the unit should be a piece of cake. Put information technology back into the MBP, put the MBP together and test the optical bulldoze's CD/DVD reading and writing capabilities to run into if the cleaning had whatsoever positive effect. For me it was worth the trouble. I tin can at present read every CD/DVD of mine over again and writing works perfectly too.

Update (2010.04.04): it happened today for the first time -since I wrote this commodity- that I could not read a CD with my MBP'south superdrive. The fourth dimension period was most 20 months. And since I bought my MBP during Christmas in 2006 (27th of December to exist precise), it was 20 months between the date of purchase and the first cleaning. And then information technology'southward now quite certain that my drive needs cleaning every 20 months. I alive close to a road with a pretty high traffic and not as well rich vegetation, and then a lot of grit is coming into the flat. Probably people living in the suburbs are better off regarding the required cleaning frequency of their optical drives.

Update (2010.12.30): 3 days ago I took apart my mom'due south Mac Mini to replace the hard drive (she outgrew the original 120 GB one). Once at it, I couldn't resist to open and make clean the DVD-RW drive too.

Hither'southward a picture showing the lens in the Mac Mini'south SuperDrive (information technology's a Pioneer DVD-RW DVR-K06, firmware version Q614):

While opening the case, a small, white, plastic component accidentally popped out. Information technology was not too hard to put it dorsum in identify, merely to make life easier, hither's a picture showing the office that yous should be careful with:

Update (2012.07.01): I wrote a post almost how cleaning the fan exhaust port tin aid yous set up operation problems (lagging, slowness) of your notebook/laptop/workstation/etc. Check it out since if you already consider going "inside" your notebook, you might as well clean information technology out properly.

Update (2013.04.14): I judge it's at present my turn to thank for all the comments. Today was the first time that I actually tried the suggested (and many times confirmed) method of using a credit card wrapped in some textile to make clean the lens. I have an old CD that Mac OS X reported as being bare. I didn't want to have apart the Macbook just to read this one CD, and then I took a credit card, wrapped it in a wet cloth (a microfiber one used for cleaning spectacles) and pushed it through the CD slot. The credit menu + material pair turned out to be far too thick, so I looked for a slimmer substitute and my tax ID card (in Hungary nosotros get one of these ... has your tax payer ID number on it) turned out to be just the perfect fit. It'south a lot slimmer than a regular credit card, then I wrapped the same cloth effectually it and pushed it through the hole. I've repeated this a couple of times, so tried to read the CD again and it worked. So thanks Chris (who was the first to propose the credit card method on 15th Apr 2009)!

Source: http://muzso.hu/2008/08/17/how-to-clean-the-lens-of-a-slot-loading-optical-drive-a-macbook-pros-superdrive

Posted by: noonjons1983.blogspot.com

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