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CDs gone all frosty looking

post #1 of 14
6/5/11 at 3:41pm
Thread Starter 

have a number of older CD single from various bands but all seem to be made by EMI Swindon

 

To my horror I have just dug some out to play and they have all gone frosty looking and will not play.

 

How can I fixthem I have a great of LTD edition disks that are dead.

 

Untitled-51.jpg

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post #2 of 14
6/5/11 at 4:31pm

That's a pretty incredible picture, if nothing else. Have these CDs been stored in any extreme temperatures or in humid conditions at all?

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post #3 of 14
6/5/11 at 4:34pm

... Like they've been in the freezer for storage?  biggrin.gif

 

I've never seen that before.

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post #4 of 14
6/5/11 at 4:41pm

More like in a hot place like Joe said, I once put a Cd into the microwave and it looked somehow similar to that one but with a more organized pattern

 

800px-microwaved_disks-cover_fractal_trees_ceb400491.jpg?w=300&h=225

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post #5 of 14
6/5/11 at 5:00pm

I was going to make a comment about how the putting a CD in a microwave is a bad idea because of the thin metal layer. Then I realised that if you're putting a CD in a microwave you're probably beyond caring.

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post #6 of 14
6/5/11 at 5:06pm
Thread Starter 

No they have been in normal room conditions, most of the disk affected are from the early 90's 

 

Googling the problem I have found a only a few references to this. And it seems the mostly affected are CD singles that come in plastic digipacks and the plastic used to make them is ageing and given of some chemical that is reacting with the coating on the CDs

 

I got one disk and removed some of this frosting with window cleaner but the marks are still present and it still would not play.

 

All my affected disk are rare CD singles so I'm rather annoyed they will not play as I would back them up to CDRs

 

Forgot to add the surface is rough and almost tacky in touch

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post #7 of 14
6/5/11 at 5:20pm

so that seen in the OP is not the middle layer (where the info is) but the transparent protective layer. makes it even more weird.

 

you think you can use one of those little devices to fix scratched CD's? 

 

or try a more manual methos


Edited by JamesMcProgger - 6/5/11 at 5:24pm
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post #8 of 14
6/5/11 at 8:20pm

could be "crazing" where solvent swells the plastic causing stress fractures - typically ketones are really bad at this with some plastics like polycarbonate - sometimes the plastic piece just falls apart - I suspect the cracks are too deep to polish out - if they have reached the data layer the discs are hopeless for ever being read by a CD player again

 

plasticizers are long chain molecules and may not readily evaporate on a time scale faster than the years it took for them to cause the damage in the 1st place - this is total speculation by someone with only a few college chemistry classes but possibly you could "extract" the damaging plasticizer with a compatible solvent that wouldn't further damage the disc - alcohol?

 

that still leaves the cracks - maybe heat/compression could anneal/sinter them or they could be filled with index matching fluid

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post #9 of 14
6/10/11 at 1:54pm

Wow,that's some new modern art dude,arrange an exhibition "Tech lives and gets old too" "Art is all around" etc,something like this,and sell them.Art people go crazy about new stuff.

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post #10 of 14
6/10/11 at 3:48pm

And that's pretty new, to me at least. I've never seen anything like that in the past.


Edited by customcoco - 6/13/11 at 6:13am
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post #11 of 14
6/12/11 at 12:50am

 

I've never seen anything like that in my life, and I have lots of cds stored in the worst conditions. Lots of them with 10 years. No clue about what may have caused it.


 

Quote:
Originally Posted by JamesMcProgger View Post

More like in a hot place like Joe said, I once put a Cd into the microwave and it looked somehow similar to that one but with a more organized pattern

 

Does it happen consistently? II'd love to replicate the pattern on the OP's cds.
 

 

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post #12 of 14
6/13/11 at 9:52am
Quote:
Originally Posted by SARodrigues View Post

 

I've never seen anything like that in my life, and I have lots of cds stored in the worst conditions. Lots of them with 10 years. No clue about what may have caused it.


 

 

Does it happen consistently? II'd love to replicate the pattern on the OP's cds.
 

 


 

47.jpg

 

exactly this. 

 

 

Raymate, how is it going, got any fix?


Edited by JamesMcProgger - 6/13/11 at 9:54am
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post #13 of 14
6/16/11 at 11:55pm

Wow that's pretty amazing, I too have used CDs extensively from various manufacturers, may I ask which company produced them?
I've seen dye fading but nothing like that before blink.gif

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post #14 of 14
6/17/11 at 9:49am

Must not use cryogenic freezer on CDs! Cables only, guys. tongue.gif

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