Toothpaste Myth For Scratched Game Discs

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Steo
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Re: Toothpaste Myth For Scratched Game Discs

Post by Steo »

R4Y_ANC3L wrote:I believed in the toothpaste method since I was young and I can remember I followed the steps to fix a game disc that I wanted to insert and play. From that point on, I wanted take as much extreme care of my discs as possible in order to not do that often.(It's toothpaste after all)
I'm really happy that it worked for you, I maybe can get into this method again if I come across any scratches that need dealing with.


This is the only method I will use, though.

There are other weird things on the internet that are thought to fix discs like using peanut butter, vaseline, insides of a banana peel and all that other crap. Seriously.... :lol:
To be fair none of that stuff will work but that's obvious and you already know that :lol:

The reason toothpaste works is because it polishes down the disc so the rest of the disc is down level with where the a scratch was. Vaseline can help because it can slightly fill in very light scratches but I'd only use that as a temporary method if you needed to rip the disc to your PC just because the data is important. It won't actually get rid of the problem though.

If you or anyone else ever do this just make sure the toothpaste doesn't have any little bits in it unless you're using that first to buff out a deep scratch as it will leave the disc with lots of light scratches that the laser will have trouble with.

Try use a simple white non fluoride paste and a lint free cloth and the disc will literally come out nearly perfect so long as you keep slightly wetting it while polishing and keep going until the disc is nearly completely clean, then rinse it and you should be good. Sometimes if it's bad you might have to repeat the polishing.

I know there's better ways but they're expensive, probably more expensive than a replacement game. The idea is that toothpaste can be had for €1 or less and surely someone has a lint free cloth you can borrow and just wash when you're done. €1 worth of toothpaste can fix like 100 discs though :lol:
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Re: Toothpaste Myth For Scratched Game Discs

Post by Hoodcom »

Rayfist wrote:Toothpaste shit doesn't fix it, "resurfacing" doesn't fix it, NOTHING fixes scratches.
Are you talking about the services a lot of game shops can provide when buffing the disc? I've seen scratches being removed with those, but you can only do that so many times.

I remember when mom borrowed my Morrowind disc and her Xbox 360 for whatever reason one day made these awful scratches on the outer ring, game wouldn't run anymore. Game store was able to buff that out well, fortunately.

Then... the stupid console did it again. :roll:
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Re: Toothpaste Myth For Scratched Game Discs

Post by Steo »

Them 360s were deadly on them discs if you even walk past the thing with a game in it :lol:
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Re: Toothpaste Myth For Scratched Game Discs

Post by Hoodcom »

Yeah no joke. She's got the newer slim model. Though I do have an older white Xbox 360 in my setup, but I almost never use it. Though it's hooked up ready to go.
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Re: Toothpaste Myth For Scratched Game Discs

Post by Rayfist »

On the note of scratched game discs, I've become so OCD about it lately, especially when buying disc based games on ebay and the price of dreamcast and PS1 titles are really getting up there.
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Re: Toothpaste Myth For Scratched Game Discs

Post by Steo »

Yeah even Rayman 2 for Dreamcast is about €20 to buy including post. I got a deal with Rayman 2, Chu Chu Rocket and some game called Fur Fighters for about 25 altogether but I only wanted Rayman and thought why not get 2 games for €5 even if they're awful :lol:

I hate them having scratches on them too and I take care of them lately but I often get given scratched ones for free. Even when I bought that Rayman Triple Pack for PS2, Revolution is actually the only disc that's in good condition while 3 had laser burn marks and M has a lot of scratches. I can't even complain to the seller because they still work somehow.
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Re: Toothpaste Myth For Scratched Game Discs

Post by Hoodcom »

Rayfist wrote:On the note of scratched game discs, I've become so OCD about it lately, especially when buying disc based games on ebay and the price of dreamcast and PS1 titles are really getting up there.
Yeah I can't blame you, if I'm spending good money on a game like that, I expect it to be in pretty good, if not perfect shape. I've seen some pretty bad discs in my life.
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Re: Toothpaste Myth For Scratched Game Discs

Post by Rayfist »

Steo wrote: I hate them having scratches on them too and I take care of them lately but I often get given scratched ones for free. Even when I bought that Rayman Triple Pack for PS2, Revolution is actually the only disc that's in good condition while 3 had laser burn marks and M has a lot of scratches. I can't even complain to the seller because they still work somehow.
That's unfortunately the bullet you have to bite with collecting these things now, is just sort of accept the scratches as long as you know the game works, but you'll need to take extra good care of it at that point.

I've actually been collecting a lot of Ps1 games lately (just paid $80 for Castlevania SoTN, kill me) and I make like absolutely 100% sure there are either no or minuscule scratches before buying stuff now. I don't mind a few scratches, but I want to make sure the game works in its entirety. Even minor issues such as music skipping are real annoying to me.
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Re: Toothpaste Myth For Scratched Game Discs

Post by Steo »

Same here yeah. They class the game as working but music skipping etc. really annoys me too. It can't be good for the consoles laser either having to work so hard to read from discs in that kind of condition.

If someone is going to charge you that much for the game they should at least have it in good condition. That Rayman 3 disc that I got in the triple pack has bits of circles like laser burn in the centre of it and one of the first things it done was had the music skip on the first level I tried. I don't like stressing the consoles like that as it'll wear out the laser much faster.
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Re: Toothpaste Myth For Scratched Game Discs

Post by Rayfist »

Just be sure to read the descriptions for listings carefully next time, if you see tons of scratches on a "very good" listing you can call out that seller and refund it. I would stay away from any of the "good" listings, better yet, never go for "acceptable."
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Re: Toothpaste Myth For Scratched Game Discs

Post by Steo »

Cheers for that info, I've actually seen a good few listings that say acceptable and never really put much thought into it. If this copy of Rayman 1 for the PS1 doesn't show up I'll get my money back and then look for one that says very good instead. I ordered over 2 weeks ago from England and even with the bad weather it really should've gotten here by now.
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Re: Toothpaste Myth For Scratched Game Discs

Post by Rayfist »

Thankfully for me, I've got a retro shop near me that is pretty anal about taking in games with scratches, so if you've got any of those nearby go to one of those.
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Re: Toothpaste Myth For Scratched Game Discs

Post by Steo »

There is actually one place in Dublin City called The Rage. They might actually check the condition of their stuff before taking them in but I'm not sure if they're expensive. There is a shop called CeX here too but they only take certain stuff. They've recently started taking N64 and SNES carts but they only seem to have disc games as old as PS2 and Xbox. Maybe it's for the same reason that most people would be bringing in scratched PS1 games etc.
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Re: Toothpaste Myth For Scratched Game Discs

Post by Hoodcom »

Rayfist wrote:Thankfully for me, I've got a retro shop near me that is pretty anal about taking in games with scratches, so if you've got any of those nearby go to one of those.
My favorite local game shop takes extreme care in their games, to never put their pricing labels on actual game labels.

When I seen how well they treat the games with care like that, they've immediately won my respect in every regard.
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Re: Toothpaste Myth For Scratched Game Discs

Post by Steo »

My friend gave me a copy of Vice City and it was scratched, I mean it looked like someone took this skiing and literally went down the mountain on it. Even the top of the disc where the label is has scratches on it. Needless to say it just gave a disc read error. After cleaning it and trying toothpaste and everything it kept either saying insert a PS2 format disc or else coming on then immediately saying error reading the GTA Vice City disc.

I didn't give up and I spent a couple hours on it last night and the results were good.

So if it could fix this then surely there's hope for most games if you put the effort into it. The disc still has some scratches that were very deep that now just look light and a couple of dot marks that look like pin holes but it's working. I played it for 2 hours last night and I'm playing it now.

Big difference from insert a PS2 format disc to playing the game for hours and enjoying it :)
Last edited by Steo on Wed Jul 03, 2019 8:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Toothpaste Myth For Scratched Game Discs

Post by The Jonster »

Seriously....I didn't even know this myth existed. I should try it on some of my discs sometime!
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Re: Toothpaste Myth For Scratched Game Discs

Post by Steo »

Yeah it can work if the scratches aren't too deep but you need the right kind of paste and one of those microfiber cloths and it will take a bit of time and effort for each one.
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FC: 40210 | CF: 103059 | BOM: 94388 | LOTLD: 120486 | DOTK: 110450 | LS: 40810 | SBTC: 99693 | HH: 100028 | TOTL: 100563

TOTAL: 809687
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