I just picked up some new DVD Ram and was wondering if the previous advice from churchguy about first washing them is still valid.

Sure. You aren't going to harm the discs in any way. And if there is residual oil or what have you on them from the packaging or manufacturing process you can only make things better.

I had a flaky DVD-RAM disc. Problem first showed up when using chase play. If fast forwarding, top half would F/F while bottom half kept playing at normal speed. Halves were separated by a colored dotted line.

Later I could not schedule a recording. I re-formatted, status showed 2 hrs SP remaining, but still could not schedule a recording.

I was ready to throw out the disc & recalled reading about washing “bad” RAM discs. So a gentle wash with Dawn dishwashing detergent & wiping dry with a micro fiber cloth and all appears normal. I tried a couple scheduled recordings & they both worked.

I may never completely trust this disc, but will keep it handy for recordings where I am there to watch & see what happens.

I still recommend washing the disks as Mike99 described. It probably is manufacturer specific as to the necessity, but it can do no harm to the disk to clean it. I haven't bought any recently, but in the past I have had a few go from nearly useless, to working perfectly after being cleaned.

This will probably tell my age, but one of the first things I did when I bought a used record:eek: was to clean it with dish washing soap and water. If nothing else it sure made it look better. CDs/DVDs should be the same, just make sure and rinse the soap residue completely off and dry with a clean lint free cloth.

Well I tried a timer recording this evening with the problem disc. I was home & started the recording 10 minutes early. That way I had time to change discs if it did not work. And it did not. The recorder came on & displayed 0000 and stayed that way for a couple minutes. I guess that could also be the timer/freeze problem, which I just started experiencing about a month ago. I checked the scheduler & there was a red dot all the way to the left side which supposed to mean Currently Recording. I dunno.