Like most gamers, we're prone to leaving our CDs lying around outside of their protective jewel cases. Hey, who has the time to put a CD back in its proper place when leaving it face-down on a dusty desk is so much easier? Worst thing that can happen is that the CD's delicate surface gets scratched and it suddenly ceases to work. Okay, That's a bad thing, but a new CD repair kit promises to save some of those neglected discs from the graveyard.

Esprit's Wipe Out! lets you remove many of the scratches that would otherwise mean the end of your favorite discs be they audio CD, CD-ROM, or DVD. It's a common misconception that the information on a CD is etched right into it's surface actually, it's all in the silver platter lurking beneath that plastic cover. When a scratch causes a CD to fail, it's usually not damaged because the information is damaged; more likely, the CD drive's laser just can't "see" the information through the scratch. Wipe Out! is simply a polishing compound that works by polishing the surface layer of a given disc, eliminating the scratches and "buffing out" any problem areas.

Of course, some CDs are beyond repair. If your disc has scratches so deep you can see light through em, digital information has indeed been lost, and Wipe Out! won't be able to help. But this sort of deep scratching is difficult to do on purpose, let alone by accident, so most damaged discs should be repairable.

To test this product, we made the rounds of the Imagine Media offices and collected half a dozen damaged discs, some audio discs and some CD-ROMs. Following the instructions, we shook the small container of Wipe Out! for a good 20 seconds, then placed a drop of the solution on the first of our damaged discs. Going to work quickly, (it dries fast) we rubbed the CD firmly with the non-abrasive cloth (which is included). In some cases, we had to reapply and start again, but in 5 of 6 attempts, we were able to make our CDs playable. That sixth disc was marred by a scratch too deep to be removed.

Therein lies the one drawback to this product: it can take a lot of heavy duty rubbing to repair a badly damaged disc. We're all he men around here, have no doubt--but even we had to take a breather in the middle of some disc repairs.

In spite of this one drawback Wipe Out! proved to be a truly useful tool around the office. Since it's arrival and successful tests, people have been coming over to the hardware review section on a daily basis with multiple CDs in hand. Given the large demand, we're thinking we might start charging a fee...

FINAL VERDICT

Highs: Does what it is supposed to do; if you've got several scratched discs, it's much cheaper than replacing them.
Lows: Doesn't work on all scratches-sometimes requires a considerable amount of work, even for beefy guys like us.
Bottom Line: A good product worth checking into if you've been mistreating your discs.

Copyright (c) 1998 PC Gamer Magazine, Imagine Media