sfbp

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.

I guarantee you there is no such thing as a real minidisc player with bluetooth. The closest you will get is a minidisc-compatible head unit in your car which does bluetooth. Even that will not support headphone output. There are some nice players from Sony such as NW-F88x (x=0,5,6,7) which have bluetooth. But no minidisc, although it's possible to get minidisc-ripped files on to them (ATRAC) and play them back.

I think the problem may be that you have to hit f8, not f7. But you can always get advanced startup by holding shift and then using the Windows "button" (LH bottom corner) to select restart. Also if you did an upgrade (and installed a second OS) good old Boot Manager still allows you to hit f8 before choosing (but after selecting) one of the OS's in the menu. This reference seems on point: https://www.laptopmag.com/articles/windows-10-advanced-startup-options-menu

If you look at the service manual (freely available from Elektrotanya) the settings indicate that 0113 is supposed to be 80 and the destFL is really contained in 0114. Not sure exactly what you've done there but it sounds interesting. As long as you change AEP (0114=A0) to something else, that should deal with volume hack. The 25 setting sounds like it's features (cf the article here on adding equalizer etc to earlier units).

i saw weird stuff too, but it has nothing whatever to do with the mouse. The computer is busy doing stuff it thinks it needs to do after that update. One approach is to leave it for half a day and hope for the best. I suggest you back up all your data, and (at the very least) recreate your user profile. It looks like there are some very strange things Microsoft did. I do not speak for Sony, or for MSFT. In addition, I highly recommend NOT storing anything you value in "My Documents" in the latest W10. Create a folder on your hard drive C: and call it "Documents" or "MYSTUFF" or something else. I think you may find that deleting your profile (st the very least logging in as someone else) will get rid of the weird stuff. There's a key HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList under which the various SIDs of the users are located. You need to figure out which is yours and delete it. Before you do that, you need to find all your data and save it somewhere. Of course you will need a new user ID. I recommend you create one (with a different name!) right away, make it an administrator, and pray you can get access to all your old files. Hopefully you had backups turned on. In which case you can get your data from a backup. If not, you have a horrid problem which I recommend you consult someone local who really knows what they are doing. No easy fix, I'm afraid. I just spent several days when this problem occurred on my son's computer which I keep serviced for him (after he brought it back from a business trip and I updated it). Sorry this is not a really good place to discuss - I happen to be a PC person but most here are not interested in Sony computers.

Something about the way the disk (this particular brand/factory run) sits when loaded? Follow the discussion over there about the sensor holes......

Delete the device from DevMgr. Sounds like the filters are messing you up. It should reinstall. Presumably the old one was not the same make and model. I suppose it's possible that you don't have enough power; may be that blu ray takes more for some reason. I've never had that problem. Usually it comes down to DVD/Bluray region, which is a knotty one. However you should be able to read the whole disk as data, just not decrypt it to watch movies. Did you try setting the region? You don't say what media. THAT will make a huge difference. There are three different lasers (CD, DVD and Bluray), and one of them may be busted. Finally, I've said this a thousand times, this forum does not contain a bunch of folks with any practical experience of Vaio whatsoever. That sadly includes myself, so I am answering this on a one-time basis as a PC person. Good luck!

Well now we know definitively which hole is which. However it's tres weird that the 1GB disks blank the hole closer to the middle of the disk when they're writeprotected. This smacks of overloading to me, if you know the term. It also raises another theory about why disks might not read (never mind write). If that (closer to the middle) sensor ever appears "closed" then the circuitry will pretend it's a CD. THAT would most certainly result in C13 (of course you know that to read, the whole servo thing has to be operable). http://minidisc.org/manuals/minidisc_training.pdf Bottom of page 2.

The unit can read CD and MO even on those units that are player-only. Not needing the writeprotect slider to decide how to read. The alignment always sets up CD reading before MO reading. I have never thought about which gets tried first, but I would assume the CD is attempted before the MO, when you insert a disc. I think when the slider is closed, the reflection is off the (white) plastic. When it's open, anything it hits is close to 1cm away, and probably not reflective. The 1GB HiMD disk has an interesting variation on the standard disks. The slider also closes the hole behind the one nearest the front. That hole is completely absent in a prerecorded (CD) disk.

Cloning is neither here nor there IMO. Did you try to format the disk? The microwave (that you don't have) will blow up if you put an MD in it. Don't. BTW, your best friend in absolutely cleaning off disks is a pre-NetMD device, either portable or deck. In addition a portable with a busted overwrite head will clean out the TOC immediately. Assuming there isn't a physical defect, of course. In which case, no way to remap. Floppy disks were ever thus. Remap the bad sectors but if it hit the FAT, you were dead in the water.

I might be inclined to stick it in the microwave (joke). And yet your neighbour appears to be in the USA. What's up....?