cleaning a laser

do not do it! use only compressed air to clean.

Never had a problem with gentle use of a Q-Tip & a light dip of Windex. I believe this was once suggested by Alex Paychev of APL.

Although I've never cleaned my lens, I was seeking advice on this subject at one time. I was cautioned by Rick Walker, the tech at Signal Path, that compressed air uses freon as a propellent and can leave a film on the lens and/or blow off the lens. He stated that he cleans the lens by using a Q-tip very gently with a lens cleaning solution.

Thank you everyone for your advice. Hartwerger, do you mean lens cleaning solution such as you use to clean plastic eye glass lenses?
Joe

Camera lens solution and a Q-Tip would do it?

Gammajo: I was basically quoting what Rick Walker told me. I assumed he was talking about a camera lens cleaning solution. If you find a specific solution tailored for use with a laser lens, you may feel safer using that solution, but I'd bet that solution and a camera lens solution are basically the same. I'm far from an expert on CD/DVD player problems and there seem to be more than a handful of troubleshooting guides for CD/DVD tracking problems that can be found on the internet. Sometimes tracking problems are caused by the discs themselves, other times it can be dirt or poor lubrication in the disc drive gears/rails, and other times it can certainly be dirt on the lens. Since the lens is the most sensitive of parts in your player, it probably should be the fix you try last. Just my 2 cents.

Thanks for all the good advice. I will proceed carefully
Joe