Macbook Pro Problem Solving

A couple of months ago, I was working at the Co-op and it was a slow day. I brought along a netflix DVD to watch, which I rarely do. When I put it in the dvd drive of my macbook pro, the drive made lots of spinning sounds, then spit the dvd out. I assumed it was an issue with the dvd, but upon returning home, I found that the drive wouldn't accept any cds or dvds! I was totally irritated, because in the three years of owning this mac, I have not used the drive very often. I did some research and read that one, the lens could be dirty, or two, the drive died, which seems is quite common with macbooks. For the last few weeks I have been meaning to purchase a drive cleaner but never got around to it. Today, while searching for a cleaner online, I came across a site with some simple cleaning solutions. I followed the instructions and low and behold it WORKED! I thought I would share the process in case any other mac users run into this same issue.

Macbooks don't have a slide out tray on their dvd drives... the discs get sucked into a slot. To clean it, dampen a small cotton cloth with alcohol or window cleaner. I happened to have some LCD cleaning pads so I used one of those. I used Windex as the cleaner because I have great faith in Windex! Wrap the cloth around the edge of a credit card and insert it part way into the drive.

The lens of the dvd is located on the left side of the drive and only a little ways in... I concentrated on swiping that area the most. There was quite a bit of grime on the cloth when I was done. Since I live in an old log cabin and everything we own is subject to clay dust, I think I will clean the drive this way every couple of months. I hope this post saves someone else the aggravation I went through!