sfbp

My recollection/experience is that the effect of enabling the feature(s) which allow something at the other end of the HDMI cable to power on/off a device are fraught with difficulty. Sometimes it works, and if so, leave it, you are lucky. Clearly you hit one of the cases that doesn't work, and should resign yourself to powering the TV and soundbar on and off separately. You might even buy a programmable remote that turns them both on (and off) together.

Seeing as we don't have a service manual, and looking at the general design, you might start by looking at its predecessors: HCD-M373 (from CMT-M373NT) HCD-MD595 (from CMT-PX3) And numerous others listed here https://forums.sonyinsider.com/files/category/6-bookshelf/ and here https://minidisc.org/part_Bookshelf_Sony.html Maybe the service manuals will give you a clue to how the machine is taken apart (disassembled). In addition, the page at minidisc wiki shows some stuff with the power supply. Maybe you need to figure out if the transformer is working. Kevin.....?

Time to take off the face plate and check the cabling to the front panel.......

Wow, I never saw anything about this unit. I always thought Sony didn't make anything HiMD in a deck/bookshelf except LAM-X1. Did you look in Minidisk Wiki? Do you have the remote? What happens when you plug it into USB? And... are you running on 100V supply?

EF Balance rings a bell in my memory. I would be very careful to check all mechanical movement is unrestricted (prime candidate is congealed/rubberised white silicone grease). I'd also check continuity on the head but it sounds like you are way beyond that. You might investigate what comes right before and right after the EF Balance check step, on a working unit. Can you read a CD (pre-recorded/manufactured)? That is a prerequisite before any writing tests. Maybe you know much more about this than me.....

I could have replied yesterday but didn't get around to it - the "cradle" is generally the word we use for the charge stand that the entire portable unit is dropped into for easy overnight charging, or in some cases as a dock like you would have for a laptop. The bad news about cradles is two-fold: 1. There are lot of different designs, and only rarely did Sony make several models with the pins on that cradle (and the portable) that were interchangeable 2. The charging (in my experience) tends to be somewhat unreliable, though this is the case (also) with direct charging via a 3V adapter, for instance. Indeed some models ONLY charge with the cradle, which is a real pain. But if you mean the carry-mechanism that slides in and out of a deck, then everything Kevin said is correct.

Sorry to say, the builders are still here and there is sawdust everywhere, so no way am I opening up MD on my impossibly messy desk right now. I still think, from bitter experience, that 3V power supply (which is what the alignment adjustment recommends) is the simplest way of avoiding power deficits, both during alignment and for actual live recording. The fact that you actually managed to record a couple of disks is very encouraging. The spin up/spin down is from what I recall, normal, but it maybe a sign of the laser being under-powered. I had something similar with my MDS-PC3 which required a very small bump in the read power. However, portables are not aligned using same methods, and the automatic adjustment sequence is the way to go. Don't forget that when a disk is written, the next thing it needs to do is to read back what was written (hence getting stuck at TOC Edit). So it is just as likely to be the read power as the write power (which is a MUCH coarser adjustment, since writing required 10x the power) that is in deficit, likely because of a laser that got a bit tired.

Didn't even think of looking there. Well done. Makes me wonder if the vibration is self-generated.

Sony's manuals are very good. Occasionally, on the later models, they leave out something that was perfectly explained in the earlier ones. The only thing I can suggest is you look at the manual for this device's predecessors, as far back as you have to (and have time to do). I would look in the 710 and the 510 (both NetMD) and perhaps the R900 and R90. Maybe the MZ-N1 (the first widely available NetMD portable) and the MZ-N10 (except that the latter uses Li-Ion, not NiMH). Let us know how it progresses.

There's a scratching noise when it seeks, on most of these 910s. If you don't have that noise, you are lucky. Nothing to do with spinning up/spinning down. MEM OVER sounds like a buffering error. REC ERR is surely what it says. That one probably means you got to do the real alignment. I'm pleased setting the basic voltages made a difference. Even if only temporary. Did you rule out mechanical stickyness? I think you did. Sorry I haven't had time to get my 910 out and play with it - fighting fires (not literally) here, so far this week I have had 3 disk drives and a screen fail. Something to do with cold weather, maybe.

My strong impression is that with an NiMH in the sidecar and a gumstick (NiMH) in the body that the one inside ends up trying to charge the one outside. Is that wrong? And yes, subject to: 1. getting +3V power adapter or 1.5 *regulated* PS and 2. setting the temperature if your room is cold (probably only affects the LP later on) then I agree it's probably fine to set all those voltages to spec. If that makes no difference, I would think it's time to do a self-serve calibration (all laid out in the book, basically you need a blank disk and that's about it - for HiMD it is more complicated because there are about 4 different modes to test for). PS the fancy chips are there surely to compensate for the low voltage output by the NiMH? So, given that there's no fancy chip in the sidecar circuit, it probably means you should NOT put NiMH in a sidecar. PPS (some of) the multiple voltages in Valentin's table are surely the cut-in/cut-out voltages for charging?

Aha! You cannot use NiMH in the sidecar. It's expecting a decent voltage from an Alkaline AA. Kevin, can you confirm I'm right by looking at the circuit which you understand and I do not? The crummy 1.3 you get from NiMH won't do, recording takes too much power. https://www.ebay.com/itm/186300850129 I don't think these voltages are seriously out, but the directions specify 3V, not 1.5 from the adapter. The one that's odd is VC2. This might be a side effect when the main input voltage is too low. You can double check and see if changing the temperature compensation makes a difference. I recall it defaults to 1A which is 26C, a little warmer than we have here at the moment (a rare big freeze up). If your lab is in the garden shed or the basement/cellar and under 20 degrees C, than it probably is important to set this first. I would absolutely NOT mess with the laser power at this stage. Maybe later but we need to follow the directions more carefully before making changes, I think. The (well-known) noise is from seeking, and occurs during recording AND playback. It suggests (to my simple mind, as I don't really understand the subtleties of servo systems) perhaps current is being used to seek the head which subtracts from power at the critical moment of heating up the disk to write it. This would correspond to what you are seeing, that it seems to work and then degrades? I do not think that the time-lag you indicate is normal write-buffering. I can get my 910 out later and check some of those measurements, but it won't be for at least another 10 hours.

Does this model have a RESUME CLEAR function intended to be used after servicing? I don't have a service manual available to me.... You might also replace the 2016 or 2032 battery (if there is one, and yes I'm aware this may require unsoldering). Hopefully there's a way to clear some of the memory? But then, you are definitely looking at getting this thing open on the bench and actually servicing it. For this you need some special stuff, regulated PS, Laser Power meter and perhaps the special hookup (Kevin made some, I think). I'm thinking that you need to see the magic word "Initialize" on the display. If you can trigger that somehow after getting into service mode, you may be in luck.

Is the unit plugged into the AC adapter? There has always been a problem with NetMD-capable machines writing disks using NiMH batteries (and there are no gumstick alkalines) because it takes a lot of power to write (heat) a disk. Do you hear a lot of noise from the seeking? This is pretty normal for this unit. The first thing I would do is to enter the service mode, do NOT do a 911 reset which requires a full servicing involving equipment you probably do not have. Check the first voltage in the electrical adjustments. It's (from the 910 service manual) on page 19. Is it down about 10%? That will cause all your symptoms, right there. Check with and without the AC plug and with/without alkaline sidecar batteries (if you have a sidecar, should have been one included with the unit when new). Actually check all 4 (items 1-4, VC1/2 low/high). Don't adjust anything yet.

Vendors are starting to make loud complaining and threatening noises about Windows 7, which is still fully patched until very recently (PM me if you want to know how!). So I set up Windows 10 on my laptop with the idea of transitioning to it g r a d u a l l y. There's a lot of good stuff on W7 that I may or may not be able to replace. I went through a re-vamp of everything that's connected including the off-board soundcard I mentioned higher up this thread. It's based on the CM106 chipset from Cmedia Electronics, who make nothing but really good sound cards (and have for 30 years). A lot of things worked right, and I even managed to get Bluetooth partially working (it's a medium-old Thinkpad and half the time they tell me the wrong version on the Lenovo website - if I know what I am doing I find the right driver just fine). But this morning, after solving a bunch of other problems including dual boot from a new mSATA card with more space on it, I found that the output to the USB sound card (and my hifi) no longer worked. In Windows 10, it showed up in some sort of weird compatibility mode, where I could see data going to the device (and showing up in Windows sound system). But no red light on the Toslink output and therefore no sound. Turns out Windows 10 recognised it as a "simple" output device - probably if I had plugged headphones into it, I would have heard the music my laptop was sending to it. So I went back and found the setup on W7, which I knew was still functional. Aha! there are drivers for CM106 (the base device name for that whole class of usb 5.1 sound cards) from Cmedia. Rather than search for the old install file, I looked online, loaded in the first one that I found, and bingo! I now have it showing up as "Multi-channel audio device" instead of "USB Sound card". And they all played.... (quote from Danny Kaye). Maybe this is the problem with your Xitel, though I'm not exactly sure why. Maybe you can check the analog output (there's one on the PCLK-MN10, so why not on the DG1?) to see if it works when there's no TOSlink output. What appears to have happened is that MSFT were doing us a favour installing SOME device driver instead of NO device driver. Under W7 I was probably forced to insert a disk (IIRC it was one of those teeny tiny DVDs), under W10 "it just worked". Except that it didn't. Kind regards Stephen

Well, the children did the cereal-eating, and the parents sent off for the knives, forks and spoons. The cutlery was not that special and because it had wooden handles was destined to die when my parents got their first dishwasher ("Remember your Swanmaid is a dishwasher, not a waste disposal unit" capped by "Remember your Stephen is a waste disposal unit, not a dishwasher"). But the knife cost about 2 shillings as well as a number of coupons from the cereal packets, and (clearly) was made of sterner stuff.

It was! How many minidiscs does one have to use in order to save money? (I still remember eating lots of Shreddies when I was about 9, to get various kitchen cutlery. I still have the Prestige sharp Vanadium/Steel knife to show for that effort).

Ha! I was buying 1GB disks for that in the day 🙂

It won't be a laser issue.

Sorry, I should have added the words "for many devices (and Sonicstage)". Great that it still works! What I have noticed is that if it had already downloaded info in its database from Gracenote, then inserting the CD will find it just fine. I had less luck with a brand new CD where it had to go out to the Gracenote Server. It's too bad that more CD makers never got aligned with the CD-Text possibility. I'm always delighted when a CD turns out to have the information already on it 🙂

Having taken lots of these MD drives apart, I would make a guess that when reassembling there was a spring not quite right. The behaviour of it working when on one side but not in normal orientation is consistent with the weight (of something including the MD itself) being enough to do what the spring was doing. That, or something needs a tweak until things are aligned. Particularly easy to do if you got a disk in the unit locked in record mode and had to use "brute force" to get it out (been there, done that).

In case it's any help at all, I just found this guy, absolutely by chance: Having watched another one of his presentations, I can tell you he is a treasure. This is part 2 of repairing a Gigajuke. I particularly like the "soldering tweezers", never seen a tool like that before.

Sorry to hear. I'm familiar with the 4Kn sector size problem, all sorts of things don't work (completely separate from this problem). Best to buy a "regular" drive with 512e (or 512n).

Windows' *only* problem with the sound system is that it basically allows for everything. Here's a screen shot of mine: What you see is that there are at least 3 ways of connecting to every device. This is for historical reasons, and Microsoft didn't want to invalidate any old software because they picked one of the earlier methods. And it all works, I have never yet seen a conflict or failure to do what I told it, no matter how many sound devices I connected. In my experience they ALL work, especially on a decently fast modern machine. Even on older ones, the structure is all there. The "sounds" dialog allows you to pick input and output devices, (recording and playback) independently of each other. It allows you to pick the sampling frequency and various other parameters to the point where you don't even need a sound card app or program to tweak the Windows sound system Fire up Zoom (which does its own manipulation of the sound devices) and you will see what i mean. Xitel notwithstanding, the PCLK-MN10 has never failed to come up as a sound card. Maybe it(Xitel)'s an old (1.0 or 1.1) USB and the timing isn't very good on modern machines?)

I've always gotten by with either a PCLK-MN10(/20) or a sound card that has S/PDIF. Most motherboards (non-laptop) have one of those on it these days. The only conceivable problem (to me) is that the MTB sound connections tend to be at 48 not 44.1 - but actually if you look at the Windows control panel it's quite easy to set it to the right sampling rate - thereby eliminating the possible problem of re-sampling from 48 to 44.1. This is actually only a real problem with LP playback, and since you want to record MD from an (?) online music source I don't see it's a problem at all. The PCLK comes up and acts as a USB sound card with no software whatsoever, on all versions of Windows from XP thru 11. You really shouldn't have trouble with this on a modern machine. If you have a laptop that has a. no "large" USB connections and b. no optical out, then I can highly recommend a sound card like Focusrite. The most basic will probably do, you will have to work out what I/O you need. It's a little pricey but fully supported with current versions of Windows. I'm sure there are el-cheapo versions from eBay, I had at least three different dongles costing about 10 bucks apiece. But not necessarily with opti-out. This for example: https://www.ebay.com/itm/115591309485 Stephen