sfbp

And does the sled move at all or is it jammed? (left-to-right-to-left)

When you were adding the new belt (rubber band) did you at any time have to take off that spring on the left? Were there any other springs you had to replace as a result of the work, ie they popped off or simply fell out, or you had to remove them? If so, is there an issue about what position the mechanism was in when the spring was replaced? (edit) one more question: is the disk platen (is that the right word) that contacts the MD in the middle able to turn? I can't tell from the aerial view if everything is vertically separated and free.... (and another question) is there any issue with the connectors to the front panel (ribbon cable)?

Time to do what the OP did. Unscrew the drive and remove it from the chassis. ( 4 screws and of course the same cables) Look very carefully at the mechanism. I think you will find it's stuck. Kevin, shouldn't he be able to move the insertion mechanism by hand? Is it ridiculous to take the rubber belt off again and see if the drive comes ready? (you'd have to remove the rubber band and THEN connect the power - no need to screw it back in, just connect up). BTW, I can't remember what should happen; but when you have the drive completely removed and disconnected, see what happens if you turn on the power. Does the display light up at all? (sorry, 3rd edit here) Can you, with the drive held in your hand and not connected to the chassis at all, remove the disk that's in there? If not, try to figure out WHY.

Google or search the site locally for "blank disc" then message the guy(s) concerned?

If you put in an already formatted disk it will read and respect what's there (normally, with SonicStage etc). The :disc mode: is only intended to force the decision when the disk is blank, I suspect. So the setting may be irrelevant (not a hippopotamus as we say in my family). So what I would do is put in a disk that already has some LP music on it. It should read it and show you what's there. If not, I strongly suspect you are using a "unclean" machine with traces of the unsigned drivers we've all been living with. Best to start with a machine that's never been introduced to SS, if you can manage that. The problem with HiMD is that it uses basic block drivers from Windows (not Sony), and some of them may work ok with the QHiMDXfer libraries, and some not. As long as you never installed a NetMD driver of any kind, you're better off trying NetMD first.

Is it still in service mode? If so, can you move the sled with << and >>? You'll need it apart to see this. Can you insert and eject a disk? Does it respond to USB? Does it play back? I'm thinking maybe there is something to force reinitialization (evidently what happened to OP when his was magically fixed). Surely exiting Test mode by unplugging or perhaps pressing REPT will do the trick?

FWIW I tried a variety of experments just now, starting with, hilariously, a disk I had stuck on a label saying "Bad Media". Moving formatted disks between 105FX and RH1 I could not make it fail in either direction whether in HiMD or MD format.

I don't think it works for HiMD, Jimma. (shoot me someone if I'm relaying duff gen here). I would be inclined to set the "Disc Mode" to MD instead of HiMD and see if that does it.

To amplify that, its best attribute is to deliver a "virgin" HiMD disk, especially 1GB. Sonic Stage appears unable to do that because it always saves the existing track rights in a hidden area, which incidentally reduces the available space (take a look next time you do this). In addition if there's problems with the HiMD, you get into an infinite loop - an unerasable disk sometimes. The 105FX is a way out of that particular maze. I would stick to erasing SP disks with a busted portable

thanks for trying sadly we have no expertise at fixing 105fx not least because there's no service manual available to my knowledge

just about all you have to do to turn coax into optical is supply the rail (supposed to be 3.3 on those old diodes). Life is easier since they started making 5V diodes, because 5V power much more available than 3.3, and can generally be found on the ribbon connector(s). That was the basis of my mod to do optical out for MXD-D5C (and D40 too)

sounds mechanical to me. nothing to do with type r which is mainly for real recordings ie doesn't come into play with high speed dubs. the drops are probably when there's extreme movement laterally of the head (sled). could be laser power, but i have seen this most often on netmd transfers with borderline battery for power. Doesn't happen on netmd when unit's HiMD with your observational skills you can probably correlate the drops with head movement.. requires cover off the mdm7 disk drive

Well then what you need is a busted machine with no OWH, guaranteed to blank out the TOC

When you "erase" a regular (non-1GB) disk that is to be formatted HiMD, actually nothing happens. The formatting doesn't take place until you try to record the first track. When you "erase" a disk in the 105FX, it probably leaves some HiMD stuff there but since it already knows the disk is blanked, you're ok. I would guess that recording on that disk in SP mode with the 105FX, before you remove it - at least one track, and then making sure the TOC is written, will do the job. Try to remember that there is a TOC (it says something like HiMD disk) which has not been erased yet, your way. That TOC or part of it is likely confusing the RH1.

Sounds like an adjust and/or lube job to me. The less resistance, the less battery used, too - as I found out with my E909. Of all my gumstick-driven units, it's the one that seems to have the most play time - seems to me that I might have cleaned up its extremely delicate mechanism as a prerequisite to reviving it. The ones which grind a lot probably do need the old lube job and/or disassembly and much fiddling to minimise mechanical resistance. All said and done, unless this only happens when on battery, you've likely got a little bit of electrical adjusting to do. My experience is that the first couple of power adjustments are the ones which really matter. Getting more juice (volts) to the circuit affects everything including whether knobs respond correctly (changing resistance on knob-press) and whether the laser ultimately gets enough power. However,,,,, once the rails are up to the voltage they should be (and running off the wall should allow you to eliminate that problem) if there are still dropouts then the laser needs a re-adjustment. For non-HiMD it's not that complicated. Basically stick in a blank disk and it does its thing. You'll need 1 prerecorded MD (CD) though.

Phew, that's one for the recipe books then! Cheers Stephen

But some (installed) programs survived? (see the list in control panel add/remove programs) Small question: exactly which version of Windows? Hint: type "winver" at a command prompt.

Sooo weird. Never seen this before. When it "reset" Windows, did you notice were any other programs missing? I'm wondering if it's time to take the bull by the proverbial horns and eradicate all traces of whatever install you had. This stuff works, on countless (different) machines. There's something weird about your setup,,, I just don't know what. I can try to help you do that.

Do you *always* get a blank disk no matter what you do? In which case the Overwrite Head (OWH) is shot.

And you definitely ran the program as administrator? Go check and see if you have DEP (Data Execution Prevention) turned on for all programs. It should only be on for Windows (system) Programs. You can find that in System properties - Advanced. Other than that you've got me. Time to check for virus. (And the old joke - Windows is the virus you cannot eradicate).

Hmmm. In the fourth and last shot, you show a menu where you are invited to click "Next". And I see no blue circle indicating it's busy. Are you saying you never get to click on that button? Thanks for the time to set up the photos. Screen shots are easy - Alt-PrintScreen. Then you need to find the image and turn it into a not-too-big jpeg, maybe with Picture Editor or Paint, before posting.

So describe what is there for 3 or 4 seconds. That's generally the length of time the blue rectangle shows. I think (there are no guarantees here): a. you have to install as administrator (you can do this by right clicking the file and saying "run as" but you still need an administrator password). b. you have to run the program as administrator At the moment I am thinking your install failed. Don't despair, simply run it again, without trying to uninstall anything. time to learn about your logon account and how to change it. In control panel there's a User Accounts. Anyone can take a screenshot, please read up on it. You have to be able to communicate to us whatever it is you see. Uploading that screenshot takes a bit of work but I or someone else can help you with that.

Do you know how to take a screen shot? We're going to need to *see* what's happening to you. There has to be some message somewhere telling you what's going on. Also anything in the Windows logs would be very helpful. Generally applications don't "just close" without a very good reason (such as they crashed, or you told them to). But first of all we need some details: Versions of Windows including 32-bit vs 64-bit, make of computer, RAM in GB, hard disk capacity and free space. I'll get my HD5 out and hook it up and see if anything strikes me. I am running Windows 7, however.

Go ahead and install SS (from this site) from scratch. With any luck it will recognize your device. The bigger problem is going to be your music. Depending on what format it was in, you may have lost it when you reformatted the Windows drive in your "reset".