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Kevin, looking the manual, I am lost. Where is the gizmo that engages the sliding cover? I can't see it on the only picture of any of these BD models. Perhaps there's a clearer version on one of the earlier models so you can see just how the loading mechanism grabs the cover. I assume that's what DickyDread means.....?

A side note, there are serial port emulators these days, that plug into a USB 2.0 port. I'd also lay money on the problem being you need a 32-bit version of W10 - not that hard to come by.

Hmm, did some checking. Did you look here? http://www.minidisc.org/part_Sony_PCLK-MD1+MD2.html There's what you're looking for. You will need a serial cable connection which most PCs don't have these days, but I expect you're all organized in that department. Good luck!

Neither SonicStage nor M-Crew will talk to the PC2. You can get SonicStage working nicely on Windows 64 (or 32) but the problem is your device doesn't speak either PS/2 (M-Crew) or USB (Sonic Stage). Sorry! I *think* maybe the Onkyo stuff still supports Ctrl-A1 II, but not sure if their flavour is compatible with the Sony (SIRCS) variety. Everything changed so fast as the world evolved to new standards such as USB 2. *IFF* all you need is good track titling, what about the remote with keyboard, the RM-D10P? http://minidisc.org/part_Sony_RM-D10P+D11P+D20P.html At least the MDS-PC2 has lots of input and output, though the review Gyula linked to seems to indicate optical input might be a bit of a nuisance. Perhaps that's one thing that's better in 2020. No real experience with the MDS-PC2. I have its successor, the PC3 and it works really nicely.

I doubt if you actually need the CD. Just looked it up... it's a Ctrl-A1II hookup.

I'd be inclined to check into all the known faults of MD recorders first. I haven't seen a schematic of this one, but Sony did an amazing job on just about all their manuals, so that would be a good place to start. Don't jump to conclusions. If I had to guess, it would be a capacitor somewhere in the power supply. Right, Kevin?

I just tested RM-MC35ELK (K for Katakana/Kanji I believe) and RM-MC38EL ( the commonest one of all, which you have). Not 100% sure if you can do everything but I don't see why not. You won't get the three line display on the 38, but I believe there's one remote which does two lines at least (though NOT on the NH1) - I just don't remember which one. Maybe the 33EL? You don't need to fear damaging anything by inserting a remote not designed for a unit. Either it works, or not....

Definitely refund material. IMHO

Well for it to fail the CD test something is seriously wrong. I've almost never seen the CD test fail unless I mis-assembled it. YMMV, of course, no offence intended.

"reset the NVRAM" is actually a misnomer. All they did, when you pushed the 911 emergency panic button was to reset a single byte in memory. Emphatically the NVRAM was not cleared. The laser power settings will not have been touched. All you did was to force a calibration. My deduction is (FWIW, free advice is worth what you pay for it), you are having a similar issue to myself with the player I mentioned, that somehow things are not moving right. It turned out to be absolutely tiny variations in how I tightened the relevant screws when re-assembling. I'm curious, just how far did you strip it down?

Still sounds mechanical to me. The CD test is by far the least demanding, and if it fails (I assume you tried it before and it worked) there's something seriously wrong.

Sadly, I'm not sure that ffmpeg and the QHiMDXfer libraries ever dealt with Mono as a format (:

The eraser on a lead pencil can work remarkably well on the tarnish on such connectors.

It seems curious to reflect that it is almost exactly a year since I first saw your beautiful city, and how far away everything seems now we are not allowed to travel.

Sorry for chiming in YET again.... it's been repeatedly asserted that the 780 and 980 are essentially the same machine with a few extra brass screws. So if someone can get the 980 going, then the 780 WILL work. I am certain of it. Stephen

Now Gyula is going to be offended at me. OK, there you go (fixes original post), and now to the top of my list of brilliant aftermarket MD repairers.

In my (limited) experience, a head is busted or not. What sounds to me off (here) is mechanical alignment, sled motion, head updown, etc. It can't exactly be the OP wandering off track as it wouldn't play, methinks. There's really nothing to break (other than it being bent out of shape), so I would be starting to look at the little motor and the gears of the head lifting mechanism (vertical stepper). I will defer to Kevin or Gyula (NGY) as to how to diagnose this. Jim, where are you? All the customers we coulda sent you........

OK. Try this: Menu (long press). Up one click (ie you're scrolling around rather than click by click to the bottom), press enter (can use the 40ELK for the Enter). You're in Option. Now up one click with the roller (again), enter, you should be in Language. Now try different things. I would try up, enter (again), and look at the remote. Just keep doing up-enter until something changes. My recollection is there were 3 or 4. On my NW-F886 there are only 2.

OK, the details you give do in fact suggest that somewhere there's a parameter that sets the language of the remote, probably only accessible from the service mode. I'm afraid I need to leave this to the members here with real experience of dealing with Japanese models and language. Don't despair - there definitely are some in our ranks. BTW I have the opposite situation, an RM-MC40ELK which is set to English even though I change the language on the RH10 to French (and presumably the other 3 Euro-languages included on that model). So the remote and main languages are essentially independent of each other. I also have a Japanese model I set to English (before the screen died) with English display on the remote. If you can figure out the button presses to change the main language maybe that does somehow magically change the remote - otherwise mine would be showing in Japanese too. Maybe if someone has a Japanese Service Manual for the RH10 they can read it and help us.

today I received an inquiry by PM from someone wishing to change the language on their Japanese RH10 without using the screen. I won't do this sort of activity privately, as there are others available who may have better answers and it is best such questions and the replies are shared with the community in any case. Having told him so, I went off to double check. Yes, you can get into service mode with the RH10 and the parameters showing on the RM-MC40ELK (actually I think you can do it with the less fancy single-line remotes too, so don't weep too much if you don't have a multiline remote). Changing DistFL doesn't affect the language at all, unless someone knows how (this was covered by the original discussion). When I changed the language (not using service mode) on mine I was able to use the menu on the (working) main screen of the RH10. Unfortunately "Language" doesn't show up under Option on the remote when you go into the menu (by long-pressing "Display" on RM-MC38EL or the remote jogwheel on RM-MC40ELK). Worse than that, changing the language doesn't give a change on the remote which stays resolutely in English, unless I missed some reset/clear step. So my conclusion is that you have to purchase a remote for the country, unless someone knows how to change the remote. If the latter is possible, one doesn't even need to mess around with the RH10!

What's the name of that gizmo from nirsoft? USBDeview and USBLogView

Interesting! So they spent big bucks getting into this technology, which they assumed was going to really take off (and in a sense, it did).

Too bad they had to rename the chip and give it a Technics number instead of sticking with the Sony designation. I mean, I seriously doubt they did anything other than change the label. So someone might be able to identify it from the pinout, but I think you've got your answer, Stan. (see posts below) I've been wrong many times and this is one of those times.

Service manual published in year 2000, I doubt it's MDLP. You can buy a service manual from various places (sorry no free download I could find) and see what the drive is. There's no sign of any buttons for record speed on the numerous pictures, including the one in Poland you may even be thinking about buying.