sfbp

So far so good. well done.

If the problem is in the remote then it's contact resistance. the way different commands are sent us by varying the resistance seen by the unit. but if it happens without remote then it could be the buttons. there is a service procedure but since normally you use buttons then you have to get into SM by soldering a bridge. it could be general powersupply adjustment. start the main adjustment (don't do the 911 reset or you might be up the creek) and stop as soon as the voltages look right. don't tweak anything you don't need to. you will need a regulated power supply for the calibration. maybe someone can lend you one....

Try alkaline battery. Poor NiMHs can easily show like this (voltage low, plus increased contact resistance).

The main problem is that UEFI needs keys ie the boot code is encrypted. You will have to become an expert on using bcdedit. I'm sorry but I'm not in a position to find the references for you as am travelling. It's very counter intuitive. Basically you have to make a new entry in the boot table and then wire the GUID of the bootable partition (which is likely not C but the "system reserved" partition created by Microsoft during installation ) to that entry in the boot table. Sorry i can't be much more help. In the old days what you did would have worked. But they wanted a mechanism to stop viruses and the like from hacking your machine. You may find that EaseUS finds and rebuilds the partition table entry for you (but it costs real $$). You'll otherwise need to run bcdedit from the repair boot djsk. Warning: it may be necessary to turn off AHCI in the BIOS to get into safe mode but turn it back on again for a regular boot. Good luck

That's likely in the case no disk is sitting in the MD unit. I deduce that Walter has an RH1.

It finally hit me (I've never had to do this). If you can measure IOP then you simply adjust until IOP reaches the value on the sticker. Writing it into NVRAM is a convenience, nothing more, for service personnel so they don't have to take out the OP to read the value off the paper. I already suggested that the values are 56.3 and 54.8. Maybe I'm wrong... Speaking utterly ex-cathedra (easy to make it up when I have no way of checking my assertion), the pot must be on the component side (!) and no, you definitely shouldn''t have to remove the board from the rest as you won't be able to do the adjust.

Joining in the chorus of "Oh no, John, no John, no John, no" the principal reason you cannot transfer from NetMD to the computer is hardware limitation. It's not fast enough since it's specced for USB 1.1 (all there was at the time). Even the hack to get it to work TO the minidisc meant they couldn't do SP transfers (too much data). So ONLY the RH1 allows the other direction. Sony was very rigid about one thing in their design and implementation - good sound quality. They never implemented anything that was unreliable. Hence the huge numbers of MD followers that believe in this format. Hi-MD came later and works fine in both directions.

Agreed - you can always play them back (optical is better than analog but you will need a "full-sized" deck rather than a portable like the MZ-N707) and capture with a PC sound card into files on your hard disk.

As the old joke goes "If I was you I wouldn't start from here, sorr". You can never transfer from NetMD to PC, EXCEPT with the MZ-RH1 (and even then only if they were not made by USB transfer in the first place). HiMD is a different story but the files need to be unencrypted (File Conversion Tool) to start with (before transfer to MD).

Yes. And the write power not so critical except that if you have it too high you will wear out the laser unit. But you can get the Iop current to within +/- 10% of the correct value by matching that output with the value written on the laser (that you entered using writeIOP). Then you may be able to do without the LPM but the read power is more fussy.

You don't need the test disc. Just something filled with data from a known good drive, i think. Even then it's all about the TOC. You can make what you want by cloning. I seem to recall cloning an LP4 disk.

I think the IOP is for storage of a value. It doesn't do anything per se. The newer decks allow you to tweak power by one step using the AMS knob Ultimately Iop is the current measured in the circuit. If you can set the circuit up and tweak the potentiometer until you get the iop written on the laser, that may do the trick. However be very careful when you adjust the write power. Above all do it quickly and dont look at the laser. But get the read (ie no C13 on a prooerly recorded MO disc, forget prerecorded) working first.

Methinks you're looking at an alignment and, if that doesn't work a new OP which will also need to be adjusted. Symptoms sound classic for laser power being wrong. If you had a LPM you'd know for sure. There's another thread going on with someone who swapped in a laser, much the same. Was a pleasure to read. Remember that a blank minidisc is not the same as one that's been written on even slightly and then erased. And a dIsc recorded by drive out of alignment will cause all sorts of strange artefacts. This might explain some of the contradictory data in your report. C13 nearly always is a laser power problem. Most likely yours got tired.

See if you can operate the device (with a minidisc inside) with the lid off. Maybe you answered this already, that it wouldn't stay inserted...? See if it: a. spins up and runs for several seconds before either reading TOC or saying "Blank Disc" b. spins up and then immediately down again c. never starts d. spins but gives you a C13 error before proceeding further. As long as you are not in write mode, the laser power should be low enough not to fuss too much. I wouldn't try looking for the beam, put it that way. Also it would be interesting to know if the head seeks. If it doesn't you might try positioning it somewhere other than where you find it, and trying again.

Not sure Currys or Dixons will have a LPM. You're likely going to need someone a bit more specialised.....

Definitely a Sony drive. Not sure which one because I haven't seen this one before but the board's (labelled N-2 prominently) style is pretty unmistakeable. But the connectors on it are CN101 and CN102, whereas on all the ones I have those two are labelled CN102 and CN103. It's running CXD-2652AR for the ATRAC chip which is the same generation as the MDS-S38 and MDS-JE510 (depending on region), I think. Those boards are MDM-3's, older than anything I have here. Hence, I think the difference in connectors, for example. Your laser iop is "0563" meaning 56.3 mA, and the one that you took out looks like a 54.8. The manual section looks lifted right out of the ones known to us and provided by Sony. And yes, it looks like you might need the LPM. Sorry about that. If you take it to someone with one be sure that the wavelength calibration is multiplied/divided by the fraction that pertains to the wavelength used by this laser (780nM) as the meter may be calibrated for some other wavelength. Mine is set on 633 (He-Ne) and so the reading must be divided by 0.73, as what the device says will be less than the actual output measured. You can try to work it out for what it should be (the IOP reading), assuming the previous one was correct and multiplying by the ratio of the 2 IOPs (old to new). But don't do the write-power part until you have the read-power working. In this case the current (and therefore the laser output) should be about 8x the read value, give or take. Study the stuff on those pages in the manual until you are really clear how it works.

Not trying to be a luddite but any chance you could post jpegs instead?

If you can identify the drive (photo would help) we can maybe figure out which Sony unit Teac used (or cloned). For a while everything came from Sony and the manufacturers would put the Sony components into their own chassis. (I am supposing, someone out there will probably have evidence telling me I'm wrong and so be it). I looked at Elektrotanya.com and unfortunately the MDH-500 is a bit older than most of the stuff they have. You'll do better searching for the manual using the full name which appears to be "MDH-500 (Reference series)".

Alignment refers to adjusting the voltages so that the correct amount of laser power is delivered when the circuit is turned on. This varies by each individual laser device. To give you a start, there is usually a sticker (sometimes written by hand in blue ink, sometimes printed) with a four digit number (if only 3 digits then add a leading zero) on it. This number is used as the factory pre-calibration in mA for the laser itself (how much current does it need). In many cases, setting this as the IOP value in the right place in the alignment sequence will be all you need. When it comes to adjustment, the read power and the write power are set separately, as the latter is ten times greater, roughly. So it follows that the read adjustment is more critical. IIRC the IOP number relates to the read power, but it's a while since I did all this and I was operating by guess and by golly at the time Most of this is set out in the service manual for your unit; I have no clue what the TEAC service manuals are like, having been spoiled by Sony's careful attention to this documentation. The other way of getting it right is to set up your own circuit, measure the current and (optionally) measure the actual laser power delivered. The latter definitely takes a laser power meter (cost around $200), but many service outfits get away without using one. It's the ultimate check. If you were able to do the soldering, you can probably manage this. The whole thing relies on a servo circuit which cuts in *when the disk is rotating*. It's not a static adjustment per se. Seeing that the optical pickup (OP) vibrates is sometimes but not always a sign that the power is wrong. Above all do NOT leave the laser in write-power-mode for more than a few seconds, even when taking a measurement. Otherwise you'll probably blow it. Start by reading the service manual for one of the Sony decks that use these same pickups. But I have no idea how you get into service mode on a TEAC; you'll have to discover that (and we will be glad if you publish those details once you have it all working). For all i know they adopted Sony's mechanisms. If so you will see that part is referred to by the common Sony name of MDM-something (mdm-7 is common in decks). The only sad part is that the IOP value for the laser probably got covered up when you installed it, so you may have (unless you photographed it) to at least partially disassemble it to read the darned thing.

Sure; you have to do an alignment. This is complicated. Don't keep trying and trying - you may well burn out the laser. All true even if you change 260a for 260a.

See page 18 of the service manual https://elektrotanya.com/sony_cdx-52_rf_sm.pdf/download.html

I repeat my post from earlier in the thread http://forums.sonyinsider.com/topic/29620-guide-to-getting-your-net-md-walkman-working-on-windows-10/?do=findComment&comment=193390 I really don't see what the problem was. You are welcome here, Mike, but the information about turning off DSE in Windows 10 is well known, and didn't need to be repeated. There are no rewards here for the number of posts... I should know <grin>.

The F8 menu DOES have "disable driver signature enforcement" as one of the options. There's a minor problem with W10 where it's impossible to hit f8 or any other key because the system boots so quickly. But f8 works on all versions after xp ( and in xp is unnecessary). You're right, there is no difference between F8 and 8 in the menu you mention. But it's on the screen with lots of explanation and therefore hard to go wrong. The "F8 menu" I refer to is a low level function long before that fancy (blue) menu gets called.

What happened? You can do a 911 reset but then you need to go through a complete self-alignment. Not that complex but you may need a tool or two.

Forget that.... you need to read on here how to replace the battery. See some posts by Jimma, I think.