Repairing a CD

[Necrotic]

I was playing Chrono Cross earlier today. As I worked through the story, and got to a particularly climactic part of the plotline, a cut scene started playing. Feverish with anticipation, I was clamouring to see what would happen next in this very intriguing story.

About 10 seconds into the cut scene, it stops playing and freezes.

I am enraged.

So I take the disc out, look at the disc, and... well, it's not the prettiest disc but there's no scratches that are noticeably deep. I use a CD cleaner from Radio Shack that's worked wonders for my (very finicky) Wii Sports disc in the past, but in the end I get no luck. I rip open a package of one of my soft lens cleaners, wipe the disc in a straight line from the inside then outward, wait for it to dry, and pop the sucker back in. Again, no go.

The game was new when I bought it. I purchased it last spring some time so I'm a little surprise the disc ran into problems so fast. I always take great care with my game discs, especially my PS1 games, so this has me a little chapped.

I've been reading up on household recovery methods and I'm a little skeptical. I've read that polishing with a baking soda toothpaste can do wonders but I'm not confident enough to start polishing my disc unless I'm looking at last resorts, unless someone can tell me in a little more detail exactly how and why it's done.

I've heard there are some places that have disc refinishers I might be able to use. This is what I'm particularly interested in more than any other method, because I have a knack of fucking up any household method offered to me. Does anyone know a place that'll let you pay to use one, or any places that specialize in refurbishing your discs? Extra points go out to ones those of you who might know of any in Canada. I've heard of rental stores and game stores letting you pay to use theirs in the US, but if there's one thing I've learned lately it's that Canadian branches of the same US-based business usually half-ass their services like whoa compared to their US counterpart.

Anyone else have a similar experience before? I'm pretty cpnfident we've all had our fair share of scratched discs that didn't work before, but I'm wondering just how successful recovery can be, not to mention how I'd go about doing it. Most of mine in the past were just useless, temporary data CD's that I never really cried over. This time it sucks because this disc is a game I've been so engaged in lately. :(

Besides, I'm sure I'm not the only one that can benefit from this knowledge.

Thanks everyone,
Nick

[Hyperion5182]

If they still make them look for a disc doctor. I use one and i am uncertain i would use anything else. Gamestop has their own version they work wonders.

[The Author]

Could it be the console that is the problem?

[shikigami]

toothpaste works for filling in scratches.

[Moseph]

Check with your local video store. They have to repair their own scratched DVDs, and they may be willing to repair your discs for a small fee.

[Majin GeoDooD]

The same thing happened to my original CC disc 1 about 3-4 years ago. The FMV that plays when you enter Viper Manor always froze (in my PSX or my PC). I downloaded an ISO of the CD and played it on ePSXe.. it plays and looks better on that anyway.

[suzumebachi]

try gamestop.

[Necrotic]

Thanks guys. I phoned up one of my local EB Games.

I asked the guy if they knew where I could get my disc refurbished and they said they could only do it for games that you bought from EB and added their "Gameplay Guarantee" thing on top of it. I'm cool with that, but now what?

Well, he was actually a really cool guy. He directed me to a place in my town, a hobbyist shop, where they do disc resurfacing for $3-4 or so per disc. I'm gonna take advantage of this because there's a couple other games I have that I'm worried I'm gonna run into the same problems (especially my DMC3 disc, ordered online, which popped out of the case while in transit and is scratched to shit but still plays fine so far), so I'll probably get them all resurfaced, and help out a small local business while I'm at it.

I'll probably check them out some time this week.

[Necrotic]

Hah!

So it turns out this is a universal problem with the Greatest Hits version of Chrono Cross. Go figure. Time to contact Square.

On the bright side, all of my old unworking games now work due to the resurfacing.

[The Coop]

If you have one nearby, try looking up Game Crazy. Some stores have a disc resurfacing machine that works absolute wonders on old CD games. If you buy it from their store, they'll resurface it for free when you buy it. Otherwise, I think it's $3 per game. But damn, does that machine work. I bought on older XBox game from them that was pretty marked up. When they ran it through the machine once, it looked new... literally. Not a single mark on it.

Won't help your current problem, but it might come in handy at another time.