There is nothing more frustrating than getting all ready to play the PS4 or PS5, only to find that it has given you the dreaded error screen.
After a few cursed words, you might feel stressed you cannot play your game.
Luckily most times, the problem is just a dirty disc which can happen from dust, dirt particles, and the common one, fingerprints.
Scratches can be a problem depending on how deep they are, but these can be fixed just by wearing away the protectant that is on the surface.
Once your game has had a clean and the scratches have been tended to, you are well on your way to enjoying your game.
Table of Contents
How To Clean PS4-5 Disc?
If you can see visibly strong fingerprints, grime, or dirt on the disc, you can clean it quite easily using a soft cloth dunked under cold water. You don’t want to add any detergents, as these can be too aggressive and damage the disc. Use distilled water on the microfibre cloth and clean over the surface of the disc gently. Use another cloth to dry the disc and ensure there are no smudges.
How To Clean Without Causing Scratches
If you can see visible dirt, you want to avoid wiping this as it can create a long scratch. Instead, you can try to blow it off with your breath or run it under cool water to help remove it easily.
A microfiber cloth is the best type of cleaning cloth as they are gentle and work well to attract and hold dirt and dust.
Otherwise, another option that works well is a lens cloth that people use to clean their glasses, so as you can imagine, they are delicate cloths perfect for cleaning discs.
You can buy both of these at most general stores and online. The lens cloth can also be purchased at your local eye clinic or glasses shop.
You want to avoid using such things as paper towels and tea towels or face washers as these can scratch the disc.
What Is The Right Way to clean The Disc?
Get your cloth and hold the outside edges of your ps4 disc and ensure it is on the reflective side up and starting from the middle of the disc; you want to move the cloth outside towards the edge.
You want to ensure you keep it in a straight line. Keep going around the disc cleaning this way until the whole disc is cleaned.
Ensure that you pay attention to the parts that are extra dirty or may have fingerprints on them.
It is important that you avoid wiping in a circular motion, as this can actually damage the fragile disc.
If the disc still looks dirty, you can always clean it with a little bit of water.
You can dampen a cloth and wipe from the center to the edges once again.
If there are streak marks, you can use the dry part of your microfiber cloth and wipe it the same way again.
Distilled water is best to use as tap water can leave marks and residues with the added chemicals.
Ensure the disc is completely clean before you place it into the PS4.
Using Isopropyl Alcohol To Clean The Disc
If you have a very dirty disc, you can use isopropyl alcohol, but this should only be used as a last resort.
You can dab a small amount on a cloth and wipe the disc over, or you can mix equal parts of the isopropyl alcohol and water, then dampen the cloth in it and wipe over the middle to the edges until the disc has fully be cleaned.
Isopropyl alcohol is also known as rubbing alcohol and can be brought at pharmacies or most general stores.
There is a slight chance that the rubbing alcohol can damage the disc, which is why it should only be used as a last resort.
You can purchase disc cleaning wipes that have a cleaning solution already on them and can be brought from most electronic stores and online.
Once the disc is fully dried, you can go ahead and try to see if it works. If the disc still doesn’t work, double-check for fingerprints and scratches, as these can prevent the machine from loading the disc.
If the disc is in good condition, you might want to consider the PS4 machine itself.
Removing The Scratches
You can send the disc off to be professionally cleaned as they have resurfacing machines that can help to get rid of any light scratches that may stop the disc from working.
The repair is quite affordable, and quite often, if they cannot fix the disc, it is better to go in the rubbish bin.
Buying A Scratch Remover
If you have a few discs that need to be fixed or you have children that never put the discs away properly, so they end up scratched, you might benefit from a scratch remove machine that you can do yourself at home.
These are affordable and require no special skills. You just need to place the disc into the scratch remover machine, and it will start up and start spinning the disc.
This works by grinding off one layer of the coating on the reflective side, which will help to remove the shallow scratches that can prevent the disc from playing.
You can buy these machines online and from some electronic stores.
Using Toothpaste To Clean A PS4 Disc
Waxy substances, just like the good old toothpaste we all use daily, can be good at repairing discs.
A gel toothpaste will not work; it needs to be a white paste type. Now make sure the toothpaste doesn’t have whitening agents or bleach.
Other ingredients that work well are bananas, car wax, and Vaseline.
It is important to remember that a DIY disc repair might not always work, and if you don’t know what you are doing, you can run the risk of damaging the disc further, so only attempt a DIY scratch repair if the disc is no longer working.
To use the toothpaste, all you need to do is rub a ten cent piece of toothpaste on the said disc and ensure that you cover the scratch.
Now use your clean fingers to smear it around, then rub it gently with the corner of a clean microfiber cloth.
If you have small scratches, a little water and toothpaste mixed together on a cotton swab can be used.
Rub the disc for 1 minute to make sure the scratches are removed.
Remember using toothpaste can lead to scratches if you rub in a circular motion so try to avoid this. Tread carefully though as discs are fragile.
Washing The Disc After Cleaning
You can rinse the disc under some clean water to wash all the toothpaste off.
Once all the toothpaste has gone, you can wipe it over with a clean, soft cloth.
When fully dry, you can try to see if the disc will work in the machine. If the scratches are still there but seem to have faded, you can repeat the process again with toothpaste.
Using A Disc Repair Kit
Your disc repair kit comes with everything you need to start repairing and deep cleaning your PS4-5 discs.
You can easily get around 30 repair cycles that work for deep scratches, 50 regular cleaning cycles for the small scratches, and around 140 cycles of general cleaning.
The disc repair kit is easy to use and quite cheap to buy. The repair kit can quite often fix the disc, depending on how scratched it is.
The repair kit is able to work out 99 percent of the small surface scratches, but you might need to run the disc through the deeper clean twice to help reach the desired results.
All you need to do is to open the lid of the machine and add in some of the cleaning solutions, put the disc in the machine, then close it and press the start button.
Most likely, the disc will be usable once it has finished the process. This is a good way to save yourself time and money and elbow grease if you prefer not to clean with your elbow grease.
The kit will eventually pay for itself when you have successfully cleaned a few discs for your PS4 -5.
The refill cleaning solution bottles are affordable and easy to order and buy.
Have You Cleaned Your Disc Drive?
This is quite easy, and sometimes you can go to all the effort of cleaning your PS4-5 disc only to take it out and see it is dirty once again, which can be due to a dirty disc drive.
To clean the disc drive, all you need to do is to grab some q-tips and dip them in some alcohol or professional electronic spray.
Dip the q-tip into the cleaning solution and push the q-tip into the slot where you would put the disc.
After that you want to smoothly and slowly move the q-tip across until you can feel a little switch which is what is used to start the motor to allow the game to slide in.
Now, move the q-tip over to the other side where the rollers are located and leave it to sit there for up to one minute, you can then pull out the q-tip, and you will be amazed at all the gunk that you can see sitting on the q-tip.
How did all that come from the machine? Yes, it’s possible.
This is good to do when the rollers are spinning, which can help to remove the gunk from the roller onto the q-tip. Let the machine and rollers dry for a few minutes and insert the game again and see how you go.
If none of the above work, it might be time to call the quits and invest in a new game.
Conclusion
Cleaning your PS4-5 disc is a great thing to do when you have a disc that keeps creating an error on the machine.
You might have brought a disc at a second-hand store or borrowed it from a friend, and it happens to be scratched, and dirty. A good clean and repair might just do the trick.
In this case of scratched and dirty discs, prevention is the key. Ensure you always store your discs in their cases and take care when puting them in or taking them out of the machine.
You can buy disc covers and folders that can safely store all of your discs together for easy access.
Caring for your discs is important so ensure they are well cleaned and stored correctly so you won’t have trouble with your discs again in the future.
Frequently Asked Questions About How To Clean a PS4 PS5 Disc
Can You Clean A PS4 PS5 Disc With Vinegar?
While vinegar is great for cleaning, it is a good idea to steer clear of vinegar as it can be a harsh cleaner and might cause irreversible damage to the disc. Ensure you are using proper cleaning methods and ingredients that are safe to use on discs.
Can A Scratched Disc Wreck Your Playstation Machine?
The PlayStation machine doesn’t make contact with the PS4-5 discs as the disc reader uses magnets to hold the disc. The PlayStation itself won’t become damaged with unreadable discs. It will just refuse to read the disc and eject it back out again.