Why do dvd skips

But if cleaning the laser lens does not solve the skipping, and if you feel confident enough to take your DVD player apart, then remove the top cover from home units. Blow out any dirt and lint; particularly from the rails upon which the laser assembly slides back and forth. Avoid too much air pressure though. A can of residue free air works well for this. One stitch in time saves nine when maintaining these delicate video discs. To preserve peak performance, avoid ever dirtying the DVDs to begin with.

Always store them in their cases when not viewing, and avoid exposing to weather and direct sunlight. Avoid getting fingerprints on the play side of the DVD. Instead, lift them by edges. Do not grab them via their flat surfaces. This limits the need to ever clean up skin oils from them.

Avoid permanently setting up the player in dusty locations, and keep it away from direct sunlight and heat sources, to minimize the luring dust into it.

Light and heat can trigger breakdown of the micro thin metallic surface of the DVD, increasing the likelihood of skipping. So, to get skip-free playback for the longest time possible, avoid exposing your DVDs to light and heat; especially to the high levels of both that sunshine contains. Laser degradation As time goes by, the disc will age gradually and become unreadable.

The oxidation of the reflective layer, small defect developed in the structure, ultra-violet light damage and de-bonding of the adhesive used to adhere the layers of the disc together, etc. Sometimes, the small artifacts are not enough to make the whole track unplayable but will cause slight output signal drops. Then the old DVD keeps skipping and freezing. It's getting worse over time. That's why it's important to backup your DVD. The damages or scratches on the disc make the laser get off track so that the DVD player needs to focus, track a path of pits, acquire the data and then continue playing from the closest point.

The whole process will lead to DVD skipping and freezing. If the DVD is more seriously scratches, the player will open the loop, kick the laser to a new spot, re-acquire focus and tracking, and play forward from there and users will suffer skips for a longer time. Dirty DVD or disc drive Dust and smoke exist everywhere. Dust, fingertips, hair, or any other dirt on the disc will prevent the laser from reading the disc correctly.

Then it will skip or have other minor glitches in specific parts of the disc. It may be aging beyond its useful life estimated to be around fifty years. Or the DVD was damaged by poor cleaning techniques prior.

Or, the DVD player itself is broken. Perhaps the laser that reads the digitized video data from the DVDs has weakened. The laser light grows fainter over time, due to age and heavy use. In fact, they wear out at a faster rate than the DVD media itself. How does this happen?

In any case, there are many reasons why a DVD movie may skip while playing. How to fix a skipping DVD indeed involves some investigative work, since the skipping has so many possible causes. If it plays fine there, then consider.

As mentioned, DVD players do indeed age. Their laser light output decreases. With decent sub two-hundred dollar players available these days, just buy a new one.

But if this is the only disc that this player skips on, there may be nothing wrong with either. This disc and this player may never get along, no matter how much you clean and fix each. Remember that some players are better at reading accurately through dirt and scratches than others. This is particularly so of the newer players. Don't use your finger as you might cause further damage to the surface of the DVD. This is a bad idea as some toothbrushes have thick bristles that will scratch the surface of your DVD.

Use a cotton swab to rub the toothpaste into the scratch. Rub the scratch using small, circular motions with the cotton swab. Don't be too rough with the cotton swab. You should try to be as delicate as possible when rubbing the scratch with the toothpaste. This is true for the most part but you have to use circular motions to remove the scratch from the surface.

Wipe the DVD with a damp lint-free cloth from the center to the edge. Use a clean cloth to clean the toothpaste from the DVD. Use gentle, fluid strokes with the cloth to clean the disc's surface and cause minimal damage. Put the DVD in your player to check if it's working. If the DVD still skips after you've fixed the scratch, there are a number of possibilities: [10] X Research source There's another scratch you need to clean.

Chances are that you cleaned 1 scratch of many on the surface of the DVD. If the DVD won't work after you cleaned the first scratch, use toothpaste on the others. There's a problem with your DVD player. Blow into the disc feed to clean dust away from the reading lens. If that works without a problem, your DVD is probably damaged beyond repair. Method 3. Unplug the DVD player from the power source. Before you start work on cleaning the DVD, make sure it's not connected to electricity.

You want to be able to give the DVD player a rigorous and thorough clean and it's vital that you're safe when doing so. Separate them from each other to avoid tangling.

Place the DVD player on a work surface and wipe the outside. Take the DVD player and put it on a clean, stable work surface. Use a damp cloth to wipe the exterior of the DVD player. Pay special attention to the vents when using the cloth.

Avoid wiping the electrical outlets on the player with the damp cloth. Use a vacuum to remove dust from the vents. If you have a small nozzle attachment for your vacuum cleaner, attach it. Place the nozzle over the vents to remove any dust or dirt from the fan and other areas of the DVD player. Using the vacuum with no attachments might cause damage to the inside of the machine with the power of the vacuum.

Open the DVD slot and clean it. You can open most DVD players by pushing the eject button on the machine itself. If not, plug the machine back in, click the eject button, and plug out the machine once more. Place the vacuum against the opening of the DVD player to remove any dust and debris that has accumulated on the inside.

Gently placing it against the opening will do the trick.