Q. I could not find a cleaner for my CDs and a salesman recommended eyeglass cleaner as a substitute. Since then I have been using the eyeglass cleaner to clean my CDs and it does not seem like it is harming them. Is using eyeglass cleaner on my CDs OK? What do I do if the CDs are scratched and they skip?
—B.D., Minneapolis
A. The eyeglass cleaner is fine, but if you do not use it for cleaning eyeglasses as well there are better options that are either cheaper or have more applications. You can use something as simple as a bit of mild dishwashing liquid mixed with water, or a 1:1 solution of 90% isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol and water to clean your CDs.
Use a clean, soft cloth to clean and dry them (preferably using a separate cloth for each task) and always work from the middle out to the edge, like you are cleaning the spoke of a bicycle wheel. Wiping in circles may mar the surface and cause skips because the laser reads the discs in a circular direction.
(Here is a bit of trivia for everyone — did you know that CDs are read from the inside-out, opposite of the outside-in of a vinyl record?)
If you want a dedicated cleaner that does a great job and can clean many more things than CDs, I strongly recommend Austere V Series Clean & Protect. It uses mild agents that are safe with most electronics such as TV screens, computer displays, automobile touchscreens, and phone and tablet displays. It will work with CDs, too, and includes a special dual-sided cloth with clearly marked sides for cleaning and polishing. Both the solution and cloth are antibacterial as well. The spray bottle includes a generous amount of fluid that will last a long time, and Clean & Protect’s leading-edge quality, features and usefulness makes this a product an excellent purchase for most anyone. Austere V Series Clean & Protect sells for $29.99. austere.com
If your CDs are scratched, the industry standard repair device is the SkipDr (pronounced skip doctor) from Digital Innovations. The SkipDr comes in both manual and electrically driven versions and uses a mildly abrasive buffing wheel working perpendicularly to the disc surface, along with a special fluid to remove scratches by lightly buffing the surface of the CD.
The SkipDr works with both CDs and DVDs and I have used one for years, with great success. The CDs really look like new when they come out of the device, and inevitably all the scratches (and accompanying skips) are gone.
SkipDr is overkill unless the CDs are skipping, and I would only use the SkipDr as a last resort since it does remove a tiny bit of the CD surface when you use it.
I have used both the $22 manual (hand crank) version and the $28 motorized version and the latter is very nice to have, as making a complete revolution of the CD takes a lot of high-speed cranking. digitalinnovations.com
Please note that the SkipDr does not work with Blu-ray discs, which have a special hard protective coating. This coating makes it unlikely you will scratch a Blu-ray anyway, but I want to warn everyone before they put a Blu-ray into a SkipDr!
![Shortage of raw materials may have impact on supply chain The Ukraine-Russia conflict is expected to further impact the already stressed global semiconductor supply as raw material exported from the two countries such as neon gas, chemical C4F6 and palladium are critical for semiconductor manufacturing. This has also put the Indian electronics and automobile manufacturing industry in a wait-and-watch mode. “The [global] market is apprehensive that the Ukraine crisis will result in shortages of key raw materials, eventually affecting the semiconductor supply chain… The result and the extent of this non-economic event are unpredictable. But it has already started affecting the supply chain,” Brady Wang, semiconductor analyst at Counterpoint Research, said. The two countries also export other key metals such as nickel, platinum, rhodium and titanium. Mr. Wang pointed out that neon prices had witnessed a tenfold increase during the 2014 Crimean crisis in Ukraine even as the semiconductor industry cut the total usage of the gas by 20% to 40% after adjusting software logic and optimising the purging process of the gas filling procedure. “Therefore, the supply chain will be impacted if the gas manufacturing facilities are destroyed during the current war. If not, we may still see rising prices, though the impact on production will remain manageable,” he said. Noting that two of Ukraine’s leading suppliers of semiconductor-grade neon have halted their operations, Prabhu Ram, head of Industry Intelligence Group at CyberMedia Research, said that in an interconnected world, India would also face some direct or indirect impact in its electronics manufacturing. “The unavailability of crucial upstream raw materials can have a cascading impact through the supply chain, and impacting especially those manufac- turers in Asia, who are reliant on Ukraine,” he said. While the consumer appliances sector in India is more likely to be impacted by the increase in prices of other raw materials such as steel, semiconductor shortage is expected to put pressure on the supply of smartphones, laptops and automobiles. Earlier this month, the Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations had revised downwards its outlook for the already struggling Indian automobile sector from ‘neutral’ to ‘negative’ amid concerns over the impact of the Ukraine conflict on the automobile supply chain. With Omicron passing away without much impact and supplies showing signs of recovery, it looked as if the Indian auto industry was at the cusp of recovery until Russia invaded Ukraine. This will once again have ripple effects on the global automobile supply chain,” the industry body had said. According to Counterpoint Research, Ukraine and Russia hold reserves of some rare elements required in the production of semiconductors, vehicle batteries and other related components. Ukraine caters to almost 70% of the world’s neon demand and the neon gas is a by-product of Russian steel plants, which is then filtered and supplied by Ukrainian companies. “...The larger manufacturers of microchips and batteries hold some material in reserve, but these are likely to be quickly depleted if the crisis stretches on for months. This will lead to increased prices of the respective components. With the financial sanctions imposed on Russia, the prices of these elements are likely to increase by at least 20%, which will make the production of electric vehicles more costly.” For the consumer appliances industry, semiconductors do not play a major role, and the industry does not foresee any direct short term impact. “We need to wait and watch. With the Ukraine-Russia conflict… already prices of steel have increased… semiconductors are not going to hit us directly right now, but we could see price increases because of other raw material costs going up, crude prices going up... automatically shipping costs will go up. The rupee has devalued against the dollar, so all this put together could see a further increase in prices,” Eric Braganza, president, Consumer Electronics and Appliances Manufacturers Association (CEAMA), said. He added that since the main business season for the consumer appliance sector was now beginning, most large manufacturers would have already made arrangements for production in March and April. “In the short term I don’t see any major price increase happening, but if the situation persists then yes, by May-June, depending on the stock inventories of each individual company, we could start seeing a price increase in the industry.” In the past 18 months, the consumer appliance/durable sector has seen an increase of up to 15% in prices.](https://milhostech.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Ukraine-conflict-gives-jitters-to-auto-electronics-sectors-390x220.jpg)