sfbp

Sent you a PM with something to try. If it works, we can post publicly about it.

I'm willing but was going to let Alex see how far he gets...... I definitely saw other weirdnesses but so far I concur with everyone else, this has been a liberating experience. As the possessor of a large quantity of ATRAC, I think perhaps the most important thing I would like to add is support for drag/drop of oma(/aa3) files. FFMpeg supports some of the HiMD formats so worst case we could get the HiMD formats transferred to MDLP or SP if needed. The second thing I wonder about is the ability to read ATRAC CDs. I already messed with QHiMDTransfer to do this, so I have some idea of the internals. Writing them is not such a problem, it's just that it's a one-way trip to CD (or DVD?) which would otherwise be quite a nice archive format for our recordings. Getting them back off is currently impossible, which seems to me ridiculous. There's no rush. I'll let you focus on the problem already specified Kind regards and thanks again Stephen

You'll have to tell me the PIDs and I can try adding them. Do they use NetMD? If not, the problem is elsewhere. I don't recognise these models, but I am guessing they are from before the days of ATRAC3+ and Hi-MD. In which case, modifying the NETMD760.INF install file will solve your problem.

Ok well done with that - certainly can't hurt. My own experience with the featherweight E909 was that I had to fiddle with it several times to get it back together perfectly, but when I did, the (resulting?) lack of mechanical resistance means that the battery lasts forever, as it should with that model. I think maybe time to do some adjustment. You'll mainly need a regulated powersupply capable of sourcing exactly 1.2 volts (the minimum acceptable voltage for gumsticks).Once you have all the electrical checks done, then you can try the self-alignment routine, if that didn't make the difference.

Sounds like we're making progress. Never fear. I personally have been fighting a recalcitrant battery for days (and finally threw it out).

Ok so you ARE getting connected. What hidden devices did you see? Unless you go and set the environment variables (in advanced system properties) you'll never see any. For the N510 you MUST connect to the wall, there's no power via the USB cable. A rechargeable in the internal battery slot absolutely won't work.

Ok. Did you go through the procedure to enable display of "hidden" (in fact non-present) devices? set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1 set devmgr_show_details=1 I find it hard to believe there isn't at least an "unknown device" or a "NetMD" device with no driver. You don't have a PC-Link plugged do you? There's an unfortunate glitch where it may get installed as a NetMD (it shouldn't) and mess up other NetMDs When you say "Vista 32" I hope you mean Windows Vista 32-bits, as opposed to Windows Vista 64-bits. Easily checked in control panel - System, or rightclick My Computer - Properties

Take a look at the device drivers list in Device Manager. Does NetMD show up? Enable "hidden devices" (references all over the place) and see if there's a greyed out NetMD. If either of the above answers is true, take a look at the parameters (PID and VID). If this really is windows 32 and none of the above show up, try downloading the driver NETMD052 from our downloads section, and installing it. You'll get a non-signed driver complaint from Windows, which you must override. I don't recall if NetMD actually shows up when there's no disk in the drive. Certainly for some units which switch from Hi-MD protocol to NetMD protocol this is an issue since they chameleonise to the disk in the unit. My apologies if this is aimed wrong, and you don't cope with all that information. Your post seems to indicate you know what you're doing. Good luck.

Fails here too.....

RM MC-38EL, RM MC-33EL, RM MC-35ELK There's a comprehensive list on this site, but you could start here (it's not the list I was thinking of):

I finally had my second attempt with the WebMiniDisc application. Here are my conclusions: 1. Doesn't understand HiMD disks at all 2. HiMD recorders in NetMD mode will work but you must either: a. Set disc mode on unit to "MD" (instead of "Hi-MD") or b. Insert a formatted 60,74 or 80 minute disk before trying to connect This is because HiMD recorders present a different USB PID depending on whether they want to be seen as HiMD or NetMD. 3. ATRAC files are not processed. The software only understands MP3 and WAV (at least these are the two file types that I have; I didn't check FLAC/AAC/WMA etc). 4. Zadig is a bit eccentric. Frequently says hangs up or 'canceled by user' when you did nothing and when it has in fact worked. However I am going to look into the possibility it raises of generating signed .CAT file for our much-downloaded NETMD760 driver. 5. The best news of all - NO TRProtect flag set on transferred tracks. This means that stuff transferred by NetMD can be erased easily without hooking up to PC at all. Please feel free to contradict any of the above. I'm quite capable of getting things completely wrong, and I cheerfully admit it.

Nope. Gave up on that 5 years ago. They never made it work properly.

I do know that the CMT-PX3 (HCD-MD595) and MXD-D400 have different views of CD-Text. The only ABSOLUTELY reliable writer of CD-text for me has been Nero.

I guess the reason people want to title is because there are things to title that didn't get there FROM a PC. But taking one of those discs and editing the name information while temporarily connected to a PC seems to me less PC-dependent. More like you're making the PC into a fancy titler. I really hate uploading real recordings and having them given silly unintelligible names by the upload software, too.

Have you got the service manual? one here at https://elektrotanya.com/sony_kdl-40xbr6_46xbr6_52xbr6_chassis_ex1_rev.3_sm.pdf/download.html Looking briefly at it, I don't see a nickel-sized (20mm) battery anywhere. Quite a fancy machine for 2008, one of the only ones with all the connectors before they started taking them away.

When was the last time you had it apart? If the answer is never, have you tightened (not too much) the 4 screws on the top casing as well as the 5 screws on the lower casing? If you open the jaws of the clamshell, looking straight at it the same way you put in the minidisk, on the right there is a small plate near the very back which acts as the insertion switch (tells that there is a disk there. Can you, VERY gently, with something long and non-metallic ( a pencil, but not the eraser end), confirm that it's in the right place but can (relatively) easily be pushed back against its spring and that the spring releases when you let go? Let's suppose that everything is in order so far, and that no one has recently done anything to it (including inserting a disk with a sticky label that you had some trouble getting out), the most likely candidate is the microswitch on the front left base which registers the disk type. Do you have a prerecorded CD? (not MO recordable, but read-only from a manufacturer). If that plays correctly then it will be the microswitch. See if the microswitch is stuck "in". Be very gentle. This time the eraser of a pencil will work ok. I'm sorry I should have done pictures but my smartphone won't play closeup today. Maybe dating back to last update, or I've simply forgotten how to do it. It *could* be the battery insertion switch but that's half way along the battery and, as such, in the wrong place for the symptoms you describe. Someone will probably tell me this is a well-known fault. But the 910 is one of the most solidly built. (edit) I don't think, on reflection that the microswitch would remove all power. So it's probably something, as BearBoy says, to do with the power train, so to speak, ie the path from battery. Time to get a 3V powersupply, and also some gumstick batteries which are relatively easily available these days.

Thanks for that. I will definitely give it another whirl.

Missing from his video is the easiest of all, connecting with SonicStage/USB and titling from the computer as fast as you can type.

Wow. The developer told me that it wouldn't work with NETMD760 (because it was unsigned) and it looked to me when I tried that Zadig doesn't know how to handle that. See further up the thread (here). Unless something changed. I will try again soon, but it would extremely helpful to get from you a list of steps. Cheers Stephen

Right. My problem seemed to be that I had one driver (NETMD760) installed for multiple devices. But it definitely varies as the bitness of Windows. Are you running 64-bit version?

Wait a second - this display of information, and the prompt we saw (Init EEP?) are surely indicators that the CPU is alive. Just not talking to the BD. Cables, again.

Tell us how you got that? Was it the error history perhaps? (Sorry if you recorded some words, I don't have sound where I am at the moment). Those look to me like tracks (TOC entries). Didn't the disk have 12 tracks on it? Never mind I see the disk had 19 tracks if the same one. But it's using the display which normally shows track numbers and the ones on the display that are highlighted are the ones which say OK in the display as it cycles through. On the other hand if it's the error history, then these are errors - but that doesn't make sense because errors would be random and not in sequence. These clearly follow a pattern (increasing by 1 and then wrapping around)

Maybe you think I know a lot. I don't - only asking dumb questions in the hope that you or Kevin, both of whom actually KNOW something and can act on it. Have you made sure there's nothing messing up the USB circuits? Nothing plugged in and no shorts. Then it might be interesting to see whether, with the USB plugged in and connected to a PC, whether pressing the NetMD button does anything? That would indicate, perhaps, that the machine is (sort of) alive. Kevin?

So that's why I was wondering about the NetMD button. If the USB is playing up then maybe the microprocessor gets stuck. So to be clear, I think NetMD needs to be OFF at all times until you are ready to (maybe) reprogram the EEPROM (assuming there is a problem there which is not particularly likely).

That's fine, I think. It looks like we now know the procedure for setting the GUID in the EPROM, at least the start of it. Thanks! Was the machine powered/standby/unplugged when you took off the jumper and put it back on?