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Minidisc Decks Ejecting Disk On Powerup?

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mdenter

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I have a problem that so far has defied logic.  I have a had a MDS-JE940 connected to a switched power plug on a Pioneer VSX5300 receiver.  I have a used a remote control with a time event macro to record a radio show without incident for years.  The remote powers on the Pioneer VSX5300 receiver which provides AC power to the MDS-JE940.  When this happens the MDS-JE940 has started to eject the disc.  This has never happened before and causes the deck not to record because the disc is ejected.

 

I also have a MDS-JE440 connected to a Yamaha RX-V3900 receiver that does not eject when the receiver powers up. I switched the minidisc decks and now the MDS-JE940 when connected to the Yamaha RX-V3900 does not eject on power up.  Now the MDS-JE440 ejects when the Pioneer VSX5300 receiver powers up.  I decided that the Pioneer VSX5300 receiver must be causing some type of power spike when powering up causing the minidisc decks to eject so I replaced the Pioneer VSX5300 with another Yamaha receiver a RX-V4600.  Now the MDS-JE440 still ejects when the Yamaha RX-V4600 powers up. A different minidisc deck connected to a different receiver still ejects on power up?  The only thing the same is the speakers.   Any suggestions?      

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1 hour ago, NGY said:

Do you get the same confusing results, when powering the receiver up with the power button?

Yes it's the same with the remote or power button on receiver. . 

But there is something I neglected to tell.  If I power up the receiver after it sits for a couple hours the disc will eject, but if I power down then power back up within minutes the disc does not eject.  This has been very frustrating.  Time & again I think I found the problem only to power it up a few hours later to have the disc eject again.

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On 2016. 03. 25. at 5:34 PM, mdenter said:

If I power up the receiver after it sits for a couple hours the disc will eject, but if I power down then power back up within minutes the disc does not eject.  This has been very frustrating.  Time & again I think I found the problem only to power it up a few hours later to have the disc eject again.

Sounds like the backup battery is flat. Either not charged, or dead.

You can try this: plug the deck directly into the wall outlet, and keep plugged for 24 hours. Then switch on, adjust some settings in Setup, i.e., Peak Hold to ON, or T.Sync to OFF. Then unplug the deck from the power outlet. After ~30 minutes, plug and switch the unit back on, and check Setup. If it kept the set values, then the battery is OK. If the values set back to default (OFF and ON respectively, for the above), then the battery is dead.

Sony MD decks "like" to be always plugged into a live power outlet, in order to keep the backup battery always charged. It happened to me, that the battery died in my rarely used deck I had plugged into the receiver's switched power port, thus it was only charging when I used the MD deck, only for - in terms of charging time - short periods.

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On 2016. 03. 25. at 9:42 PM, sfbp said:

Are you sure

No, I am not :-) .

I just noticed he could reproduce the situation based on one single variable, and then it reminded me a similar behavior of a flat battery. If I recall correctly, I saw this on an S38, the deck did not want to operate in timer mode, just ejected the disc upon power up, and I found the battery dead. But since I don't have that unit anymore, cannot go back and justify it.

It can definitely be the belt as well, though I am not sure then the symptoms could be reproduced that sharply, just by leaving the deck unplugged for long or for short. He will figure it out soon, hopefully.

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On 2016. 03. 25. at 10:00 PM, NGY said:

 If I recall correctly, I saw this on an S38, the deck did not want to operate in timer mode, just ejected the disc upon power up, and I found the battery dead. But since I don't have that unit anymore, cannot go back and justify it.

Something came to my mind though.

I have two 330 decks, one of them was inoperable when I bought. It is now fixed and working nicely, but the backup battery, that I desoldered from the main board, as it turned out to be dead, and currently waiting for a replacement (more on this in another post, sometime).

I went down and popped a disc in each 330, pushed the power buttons to send them to standby, than a minute later I unplugged them from the AC socket. Upon reconnecting to the power, the good 330 kept the disc inside, the other one without the battery ejected it. Repeat, same.

With this, I am not saying this must be the cause for his 940/440 ejecting discs, just wanted to check my memory on the S38 case, and I seem to be not - fully - senile :-) .

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16 hours ago, sfbp said:

Are you sure this isn't the insert/eject mechanism failing because of a bad belt? That's the commonest error on all these machines. $10 for a new belt, presto!

I have another deck that the belt went bad on, but when the belt failed (stretched out and not turning the pulley) the disc would not eject at all.  I replaced that belt with a rubber band and it works fine.  At least for now.  If the rubber band get old and fails its easy to get another and not hard to replace.  I had a hard time finding a replacement belt.  I only found one for >$20 but for now I'm going to see how long the rubber band will work.

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For replacement belts you can either look on Ebay for the "right" one that some smart person has figured out and will charge you $5-10 for,

eg http://www.ebay.com/itm/Sony-MDS-JE440-MDS-JE640-Drive-Belt-/331534999705

or you can try some Orthodontic rubber bands. The quality of these last is a bit variable at best, but it may solve your problem. If you know someone in that occupation (or a patient) they can be almost free!

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2047675.m570.l1311.R1.TR5.TRC2.A0.H2.Xorthodontic+r.TRS0&_nkw=orthodontic+rubber+bands&_sacat=0

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