So did toothpaste actually help or was it the "blowing the cartridge" effect ?

So did toothpaste actually help or was it the "blowing the cartridge" effect ?

Yes

Maybe

it depends on the scratches but yes, it generally does help.

toothpaste microabrasive, it helps remove a small layer of polycarbonate to smooth the surface, helping the laser sensor get a clean reading of the metallic layer.

blowing into a cartridge actively promotes corrosion of the copper pins which should be cleaned with rubbing alcohol and a q-tip.

Yep. My 360 chewed up a disc and toothpaste did help it read a little better.
But the better option is to just take it to a dvd store/eb games and ask them to buff it for you.

Never use a q-tip, they break apart and get stuck in anything. Come to think of it, they're horrible for cleaning ears for that reason too.

>Come to think of it, they're horrible for cleaning ears for that reason too.

>he didn't know

Steel wool works for me

>thinking blowing into a cartridge once every two months will make a difference on a hard metal

>parents wanted to watch Wedding Crashers on DVD
>movie gets stuck midway through
>little kid me decides to use the toothpaste method i used on my RE4 ps2 disk that worked
>the DVD now can't even make it past the main menu
>parents had to pay the damages to my local Blockbuster
WOOW

It won't really destroy anything in the short term, but what I said is true. It's not a big deal.

I don't care what science has to say about it, facts are facts, games I couldn't get to start managed to run after blowing on them, that definitely worked for my SNES and N64.

Blowing into a cartridge did work, it was bad for the cartridge over a period of years (decades), but so is rubbing toothpaste all over a disc. If you're so careless as to get your shit scratched up/dirty in the first place, these temp fixes are just meant to help you keep them running till you get a replacement.

wait no one put theirs in the microwave?

>Steel wool
Too rough. Aceton is the way.

Almost as dumb as someone thinking blowing into a cartridge will make their system connect to it

That's why you use acid/water to clean your ears. Bonus points since the bubbling near the ear drum feels great.

My game discs are always in absolutely pristine condition despite supposed "mistreatment" (stacking discs etc)

But somehow I've now managed to go through two disc drives on my Wii, of all things. It first broke in early 2010 right when I was getting into the brand-new Tatsunoko vs Capcom. I got it fixed with the local Ninty reseller then. And just last Friday I busted out the machine after not having touched it for months to play Smash Bros Brawl with some friends since we wanted to relive the glory of Ganon free-for-alls in Brawl's stage list, yet the damn thing made some terrible noises when swapping discs and the game kept crashing in the character select screen.

Maybe I ought to just finally set up an external USB hard drive and load games off that

If you used a gel tooth paste or anything with shards in it- you fucked the disc up worse.

Peanutbutter worked better IMO

I actually used the toothpaste trick before and it worked for me. My FFX got a scratch on it so it would freeze during one of the boat ride cinematics

>mfw my friend used to spit on his games and rub it in with his shirt.

>smearing peanut crystals on your discs