So this idea was mocked a bit in the Giest Force thread, mainly because using such a non-fool proof and potentially damaging process was a really bad idea for such a unique disc. I whole heartedly agree. So I decided to do a proof of concept for the non-believers that it can be sucessfully used to revive a disc THAT YOU CAN REPLACE AND IS NOT UNIQUE but don't want to cough up the cash for. Here we have the Gameboy Player Startup Disc for the Nintendo Gamecube's Gameboy Player. A disc that regularly fetches $15+ on eBay without the player as they tend to recieve horrific treatment from their owners as this one did: This was the worst on the disc with another lovely scratch to the bottom right. Before Brasso of course. After Brasso: Same section above is circled in red. There is some of the scratching left as well as a new "cloudyness" to the disc induced by the Brasso. All I did was to put a folded section of a clean, lint free sock on the top of the can, tip it over and polished in a circular pattern for 10-15 seconds. Washed it off, repeated another time across the half of the disc that was scratched. Washed it off again, examined for the worst scratching and did it one last time. The result? SHE LIVES! Your mileage might vary, don't do this on something you can't replace, blah blah. This Cube was chipped and I had a DVD-R copy of this same disc so big deal if it didn't work. The disc image itself doesn't begin to fill the entire disc so I'd imagine it was padded to the outer edge or the inner ring of the disc. Had this been Resident Evil 0 this might not have worked as the majority of the scratches were in the middle. But hey feel free to experiment on your own. Mainly did this to confirm that yes, Brasso can revive discs under certain circumstances. I just couldn't find a thread anywhere where someone had done as complete a job. Just for the love of Thor don't try this on your Resident Evil 1.5 disc!
The cloudiness on the disc surface will stress the laser unit, though, which will burn the laser unit out over time. Good for a last ditch attempt to dump something, not good for playing it regularly.
Agreed. Though this disc is only read once upon boot then spun down so I figure it should be safe enough.
Probably make the rest of the reflective aluminum layer flake off around the scratch. I can't imagine it helping it at all honestly. Though I'm curious what the particle size is for Brasso and if something with a similar consistency but smaller particle size would result in less cloudiness.
If it's abrasion rather than a chemical reaction then watering it down probably won't do much. I know there's a "Silvo" product, try that maybe?
Interestingly Silvo is advertised on the back of my Brasso can as being a steel polish where as this is mainly for polishing brass. I'm assuming its action is mainly abrasive on optical discs and it most definitely doesn't smell of a strong solvent or a solvent I can discern. However it might have something in it intended to break down the chemical bonds of the "patina" on the brass itself. Then again the fluid is rather thick and has some dried crusty stuff on the neck of the tube.
