sfbp

1. is this a new machine (ie was it working previously in your hands)? 2. Agree with Kevin's comment about disks that play elsewhere or that are known to be OK. 3. Does the MDS-302 have a AD-DA mode where it acts as a DAC, ie you give some input and it merely repeats that input outwards? If so, that would eliminate a drive fault. Welcome to the group, Peder!

Time to get Process Explorer (it's free) and see if there's some program or service gone mad. If so then the noise is telling you something - excess heat is being generated. If not, there must be a software problem with fan support. You could check the BIOS settings. Despite having a VAIO section here, we really don't know much about these machines. You might be better on a specialised VAIO site or PC site. Good luck!

Is this by any chance Windows 10 N? It's just possible I suppose that SS relies on bundled DLLs. If N doesn't have Windows Media Player (see here) then I'd be inclined to see if it's possible to install it.

Sorry but we really don't know much about Vaio, even though this section exists (mainly as a sink for inquiries that we cannot answer). Our focus tends to be minidisc and portable audio. Sounds like you are well on the way to solving it, and we'd be happy to have you as a resident techie should you choose to come back Kind regards

You may need to install the NetMD driver. Other than that, make sure that the MD unit has external power. It is impossible to get 64-bit Windows installed with a NetMD driver without disabling signed driver checking. 32-bit, I am not so sure whether the drivers work without further tweaking. In any event you don't really want the old drivers. Is the 32-bit Windows XP or something later?

Not on most of the decks. Exception: MDS-PC3, MDS-JE770, MDX-D40 However nearly ALL the decks which have a keyboard and date from the MDLP era can be hooked up to the PC-Link (PCLK-MN10 or MN20) if the deck came from Japan and was intended for the domestic market there. Sophisticated tastes, have the Japanese audio consumer! You can buy stuff on one of the Japanese auction sites (Yahoo! is by far the biggest) using a service (with English web interface). This thread may be helpful

Not well. The unit never managed to play any disks except 1GB (very odd, that), and is now sitting in a small pile of machines marked "for spares only". As to your query, it would appear that this machine had new firmware from somewhere which is either: a. a Sony upgrade or b. someone put the guts of another machine into an NH700 case. Is it possible that NHF800 had that firmware build number? The two models are effectively interchangeable, of course the latter has the radio remote which almost invariably ceases working reliably after a while. In short, I don't have an answer for you. Each actual model number seems to have that first number the same (eg 005=NH700, 003=NH900, 006=NH600, 007=DH710), but the firmware version of later models can still be lower (eg DH710 is 1.000).

The only way to be sure about the laser setting is to measure with a laser power meter. Sigh.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/SONY-BCA-MZNH1-CHARGING-STAND-DOCK-FOR-MZ-NH1-OR-MZ-NH3D-MINIDISC-PLAYERS/274021961322 Only problem is you will need the special cable too. If you have it, well and good, otherwise consider buying just the cable.

I just installed yet another SS copy onto an almost virgin Windows 10.17434 (1803 edition) fully patched to now. Smooth as silk, no hiccoughs. I uploaded a disk of HiSP to one folder. I uploaded a second disk of LP2 to another. Total of 81 tracks. In between those two uploads, of necessity I added the NETMD760 driver using Update Driver in Device Manager (and of course option #7 in the pre-boot special options to ignore device driver signing). I then tried and failed to upload on the first HiMD unit I picked, hahaha because I completely forgot about needing the RH1 (M200 to you). Music tracks were play-only, of course. To my surprise and delight I did NOT need to reinstall the same driver when I plugged in the RH1. This is a new improvement I have not seen and I don't think exists in Windows 7. I stopped and started Sonic Stage multiple times. I ran the FCT which of course converted the uploaded tracks. I then tried stopping and starting Sonic Stage. No problems whatsoever. Something's wrong with your setup, or MSFT has done some catastrophic update to Windoze that I am not aware of..... yet. BTW, you do know that the only reasonable way to run FCT is NOT from the menu (I noticed it popped up on the start button in Metro) but from the Tools option on the menu of SS???? Otherwise weird stuff happens. Nite Stephen

I'm wondering if you have a "typical" developer PC, as-it-were. Could this be a C runtime problem? I have had never experienced this (and I have at least 5 installs currently running here on a wide variety of machines). Something is B*****ing around with your encryption support. Is it possible to go back to 7? I've even run SS quite nicely on XP-32 hosted as Virtual Machine on a pretty much vanilla copy of 7-64 Pro. You could do the decryption on that machine and then you'd be set for everyday usage for any device you might want to use. There's one more (weird) possibility. Maybe it coughs if you don't bother to install a real NetMD driver even if the device doesn't actually use NetMD (I assume from everything you're saying that it doesn't). Wait a sec. I never asked - are you running Win32(x86) or Win64(x64)?

You can also check to see if the files will play in Windows Media Player. They should simply play as long as the SonicStage DLLs are installed. If they do but not in SS, then something is wrong with SS installation. If they don't, then you have to look at the OMG library which is I think what we are doing. I wonder if there's some background Windows process that does something searching for media files. Also there's a couple of "invisible" Sony programs which tend to run called SsBeSvc.exe and PACSPTISVR.exe. My guess is they work fixing permissions on the fly or perhaps doing the encryption as a background task on demand. Not sure, though, but they are always there. If you blocked them that might do it.

I have a hunch that the entries in Jet (if it's not read-only) may lead you to work out what's wrong. For example if one or more entries are on an unmodifiable medium, or which point to files that don't exist.

Fair enough. DEP cannot be the answer. Something is doing something bad behind your back. Either that, or SS database has become read-only. Did you try running the standard MSFT Jet database maintenance tools on it? You'll have to figure out where it is to start with. Suggest you figure out what registry changes take place (if any) when you exit SS and restart it. Then figure out what is changing them? (added) and one more thing.... you really really don't want to store your music files anywhere except in a file of your own creation accessible to all, on a tree starting on the root of the C drive (or D drive if you wish). Not under program files, program data, or the Users tree.

Try turning it off. Also get rid of all antivirus software. Really get rid. Anything that might change the registry or file system behind your back. Check through the Task Scheduler and see what else might be going on.

Oh, sorry, one programmer to another - Data Execution Prevention.

Turn off DEP? Sounds like something is no longer authenticating...... there's definitely self-modifying code in there.

Yeah, my smartphone has recently developed a similar-seeming fault - when I put it on speaker, the microphones don't work any more during phone calls (not a Sony device, I should add). I'm lucky because the main place I need speaker functionality is in the car where bluetooth calls work just fine. However in this case I am thinking that the head unit (Sony) has the microphone, which would account for all of the above if you assume there's something either stuck in the mike OR there's a wire (or capacitor or resistor) busted. All I can think of is that the socket got broken (in your case). But it seems just as likely that there's some sort of software reset needed (as I have suspected in my case). You said you did a reset but I wonder what it was. Maybe you need service mode to fiddle with parameters. I recall that many of these units, not specifically your model, were hacked to fiddle with the volume cap. So is it possible that somehow that same level has to be adjusted, rather than a hardware problem? Apart from that I've no clue. It certainly isn't worth paying Sony to fix it as they disclaim all knowledge of older devices like this. If you want a flash-memory-only (non-MD) device, may I suggest the NW-S75x series (x=5,6,7). Note that the NWZ-S75x series will not accept ATRAC but only play MP3 files. So to get the ATRAC player you want it will be necessary to go to Japan. For example here: https://buyee.jp/item/search/query/NW-S755?translationType=1 I think any money you might spend is better deployed here than on repair. What's nice is that you get noise cancelling built in to the supplied headphones, so make sure you get one WITH phones included (there's a special jack with a fourth ring on the connector).

1. What player? (Hi-MD and NetMD behave differently, the former will play back through the PC, the latter will not) 2. Have you any other way of independently verifying that the transfers worked? 3. Have you set the hold switch on the remote so that volume control is inoperable? Stephen

I would expect it to work - period.

No change. If it didn't work with 7, something bad happened on your end. The only real changes are: A. Everyone runs 64 bits, so the 64 bit driver which was never part of the original distribution must be run if you are relying on the NetMD interface. I honestly am ignorant of whether this is the case for the A808. Any such player (without MD) from the HiMD era doesn't even need the driver to make Sonic Stage work with it. B. Assuming A, there is the additional problem that MSFT tightened up on unsigned drivers, and we cannot afford the $400 to get ourselves a signed one, since we had to modify the configuration file to make it work with all the different units. It's easy to override the no-unsigned-driver restriction but you have to read up on it and know and understand a little bit about what you're doing. Sorry to say but I have a hunch you didn't do that...... Oh yes, if you are running the ORIGINAL 4.3 SS there are some improvements we posted to make Avrin's ULTIMATE version of 4.3. Don't bother to uninstall, simply do a fresh install over the top and all should be well. If you have a large library, make sure it is unprotected first (the File Conversion Tool available on the Tools menu inside Sonic Stage).

Most sites have automatic closure of old threads. Please don't abuse our hospitality by resurrecting an old thread in this way. The battery issues are mostly well-understood, and in nearly all cases it's due to one of: 1. Contact resistance increasing (gunk buildup or some springy part not pushing so hard) 2. Improper adjustment of the charging circuitry that decays over time 3. Abuse of the battery by keeping it at full charge instead of letting it run down once in a while. I myself am particularly guilty of this. Unfortunately, your remarks about "throwing it away" (my apologies for misquoting you) may well be true about Li-Ion. The vast majority of MD gear doesn't run on Lithium. This is good, because they are rare and expensive for these units. On the other hand there are well-documented examples of NiMH "waking up" (provided they don't actually burst) and behaving as model citizens for 8 out of their 9 lives, like a cat. 'Nuff said. Please start your own topics if you must lecture us. We can then choose.

There's no hope you would be able to understand how it worked. It's already been established that the software was written very carefully to be tamperproof, and as such was created with rather strange modules that talk to each other in a cooperative way - sounds a lot like co-routine construction, which is mostly avoided by C++ programmers. I'll try and find the reference, but don't hold your breath. This stuff works. It has known properties. Follow the yellow brick road and all will (eventually) be well.

You never did a backup/restore! No wonder I am confused. Please go ahead and try VLC (anything newer than 3 years ago) to make sure the ATRAC files can be played (it doesn't handle AAL Lossless). The FCT's sole function (as far as you and I are concerned) is to remove the encryption. Yes, it deals with "old" files from previous SS, but that's irrelevant. Converted files will have the extension .OMA instead of .oma (neat way to monitor which ones are not converted). 1. It will not make the files larger 2. It will not expand and re-compress anything So I would say, import the ATRAC files, make sure (however you did that) that they ALL play, run the FCT. You should be good to go. At this stage I still have no idea why it keeps reverting, but: a. Never edit a WAV file that's known to sonicstage, always use a copy b. Turn off system monitoring of the whole drive c. Make the folder(s) with the ATRAC files in at least READABLE, and possibly writeable too, by Everyone. I know this is a drastic step to take. If you're in a domain, set for full access by Domain Users for now, or Domain Admins if you are one yourself. If none of that works, try reinstalling SS 4.3 Ultimate (ie ours) out of the box. Don't try to uninstall the old version, merely do it right over the top

..... (continued). Another reason all this stuff happens has just hit me. Between Windows XP and Windows 7 (when all this stuff started going wrong) and most definitely for Windows 10, there has been a shift by Microsoft in the security settings on files stored under the individual user's ID. Things have toughened up. The default location for the .oma files is currently C:\ProgramData\SonicStage\Packages This is settable from SonicStage main menu under Tools->Options->Location to save imported files I highly recommend you move this option to somewhere where: a. you are not storing these files in a system location or under your own username b. you set the security descriptors to something that does not involve your user and does not lock out everything except Sony's programs. For example D:\SonicStage\importedfiles It's up to you of course, but simply choosing D:\SonicStage\importedfiles (if you have a hard drive at D: - modify if you don't) will do the trick. The program even gives you an option to copy the files (but see below). The other useful trick is to create a link/junction/reparse point to point to the files. I leave this to the technicians among you to implement as it's not for the beginner. It works like this: suppose you move (copy) your files onto an external drive at H:\SonicStage\importedfiles. You can make a (directory) link to this at D:\SonicStage called "importedfiles" that points to the H drive, instead of the directory "importedfiles". The beauty of this is that if your files are at X:\SonicStage\importedfiles or C:\SonicStage\importedfiles or some other place entirely, the program and database think they are still at D:\SonicStage\importedfiles. This of course saves you from having to re-add or move every music file in Sonic Stage. It also allows you to grow your library when a disk gets full (very common complaint). I don't think this is such a good idea when the storage location is C:\ProgramData\<blahblahblah>, though. Once your files are not stored under C:\ProgramData, you should have a lot less problems in Windows 7 and 10. For starters, System Restore will not mess with your files. Also anything Sony decided to make specific to your own user will not show up there, and it should be possible to change users without hassle (not sure if there is any locking of files to your user name but nothing would surprise me). This is a general observation about recent versions of Windows and your data. Finally, remember "File Conversion Tool is your friend". Files imported by most means (especially RH-1 uploads from MD) are locked to a particular installation of Windows on a particular machine. Running FCT allows you to unlock them.