How to clean a DVD Superdrive using a credit card !

Worked like a charm. I did all the steps except using the liquid. I would recommend no one follows step 4 as putting any kind of liquid in a computer can have damaging, irreversible effects.

Same here, 13" MBP with superdrive failure, zero reading.

I used a plastic business card (creditcard felt to thick), cut a strip of the black cleaning cloth that came with my ole iphone 4s (Hey, now my superdrive-cleaning-kit has an Apple-logo on it 😉). Trickled a few drops of window cleaner/alcohol mix to moisten it and did the cleaning procedure as indicated.

Result: It's reading all my discs again. ✅

Awesome, thanks so much ggggggggg!

Thanks for the strange tip! 🙂

Awesome tip! Thank you, this has revived my dead SuperDrive. I owe you a beer 🙂

Introducing any liquid to the innards of a Mac is IMO distinctly dodgy, and not something I would ever recommend.

Klaus1 wrote:

Introducing any liquid to the innards of a Mac is IMO distinctly dodgy, and not something I would ever recommend.

There's a man after my own heart. Even alcohol (which evaporates quickly) can be "muy peligroso" for anything electronic. if a drop "pools" somewhere, and you don't see it, the first time you power up again, it's "Sparksville" or just a quiet death. Either way, it's your fault. I'm a big fan of "canned air" for cleaning my computers and accessories.
I just did my semi-annual "dust bunny blowout" for my Mini. I have an old DVD player that gets it every three months just to keep things that should move... moving smoothly.

Alas in my case I had already tried canned air to no avail. I was about ready to buy a replacement Superdrive and take my mini apart again. I found this tip, and deemed the risk minimal enough to give it a shot. We're talking about a very small amount of camera lens cleaner - just enough to moisten a lint-free cloth, not so damp that you can wring out large droplets that can "pool" inside the computer. Obviously I powered it down first, and left it a few minutes before powering-up afterwards. Maybe I did get lucky, who can say. Neither myself nor the OP seem to have had any problems though; YMMV.

I'm careful around alcohol...

{Even when I was a kid and had an electric race car set, with some (now rare) nice ones, and saw cars jumping through flaming loops, I was doubtful. Then some friends were over during New Years eve when the parents were down the road a few miles at some of their allegedly adult friends for a few drinks, etc; and we decided to see if the alcohol that tasted terrible (said everclear on it? whats with that? we thought) would flash fire as the cars sparked their way along the race track. Didn't take long, and it was a success. Melted the track, too.}

So I don't know if I'd want to use real top grain alcohol, but maybe a little bit of rubbing alcohol in a powered down and semi-comatose Mac (no battery either) may help bring it around. But the experts say do not give a drink to someone unconscious. Even if only giving the poor tired Mac a massage, with its heels up.

However I've been where you can't get parts, and it would take weeks to get any. Desparate times make for desparate measures. Just have the fire extinguisher handy... and some marshmellows.

Good luck & happy computing! 🙂

Worked like a charm!

I can't believe I actually found this-great job,easy as 1-2-3!No discs worked all of a sudden,freaked out,priced usb dvd drives,came home and EUREKA!.Thanks to 9 g's

I'm careful around alcohol...

No alcohol mentioned in this tip, it was lens cleaner that was used, which is WATER based.

You Are Da Man!!

Big thanks

Worked like a charm! I used two-part Klear Screen electronic wipes - wet first, then dry. Revived my 2008 Superdrive to read both commercial and burnt DVDs again!

Great.... I was so desperate that I got my superdrive out of service and I almost use it 20 times on my mbp 2009.

No liquid, just a credit card and a soft clothes that it start working again.

Thanks a lot gggggggggg

Yup, discovered I had a problem yesterday when my slot loading iMac superdrive would not read old data backup DVDs I created a few years ago.

First reaction was maybe the disks had aged because the drive has been working perfectly reading music CDs that I rip into iTunes. Tried a movie DVD and that didn't work either. Put that DVD in my macbook pro and everything working so it was definitely the superdrive in the iMac at fault.

So, having read the above, got my driving licence card out (no embossed lettering), cut my spectacle cleaning cloth to size, dampened it with camera lens cleaning fluid, inserted it in and out and a few wiggles top and bottom in the vertical slot and hey-presto the drive is working.

So nice when a simple fix works like that. Thanks to the original poster.