sfbp

There is no driver for PCLK in 64 bits. Does that help? Only to say that you must use the connected USB from the Virtual XP box on Windows 64. This has a very significant disadvantage though - Sony's CD drivers will not access the CD drives on the real (native) PC machine. They're fine with the CD's in the MXD-D5C and -D40 though.

I think you might have to force (or possibly DISable!) NGen for the relevant DLLs that are used by Sony. There is self-modifying code in the dispatcher which handles (amongst other things) encryption. So it may be as simple as clearing out the assembly cache. Don't do this unless you really know what you are doing. If you do, most likely the result will be loss of your keyed recordings. If you don't have any (ie all converted) that is ok. But beware if you have not yet run the File Conversion Tool. The "spare" keys are at: c:\users\<your user name>\AppData\Roaming\Sony Corporation\SonicStage\Sync. IIRC the critical detail is the NAME of the folder with the most recent date on it. However I am unsure where it gets used. Maybe in the sonicstage program folder. Look for anything which has a recent date. Try running the stopmusicserver.exe program in c:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Sony Shared\StopMusicServer (I have no idea what it does!) The stuff that is critical for encryption i think is at c:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Sony Shared\OpenMG, look at the date of the ".dat" files, these are related (via the leaf on the PKI tree for all Sony devices) to the keys embodied by the folder names above. Sorry I cannot be more help. I am really mostly in the dark, knowing what to do to get out of various nasty situations. My solution: turn off (make manual) Windows Update, then reinstall. Stephen

Other way round isn't it? Grounding it puts it into hold mode (grounding the hold pin).

aha! "Off" = on, "On" = off. If you look at the circuit diagram, the OPEN position means that HOLD is OFF. So short-circuiting it is used to stop the controls from working. What is the voltage at TP810?

What do you mean "changed"? You replaced the switch,..... or you moved it? With the lid off there should be a very clear marker showing which position of the slider is open (hold) or closed (normal operation) (Quite possible I got them backwards, check the circuit).

Frequently the Japan version is different (usually superior).. especially with respect to the PCLK feature. This is the case for 640, 940, D5C as well. The exceptions (which have PCLK support in all editions) are PC3, 770 and possibly some others. Note that any unit with USB/NetMD (eg 980) can not do PCLK - it is one or the other.

Look at p.7 diagram 3-1. entitled "Bottom Panel Assembly". You will see there are 4 sliders labelled "knobs". Each one of these connects to a little stick inside the unit (part of the main board) labelled "switches" which is the actual switch. Usually what happens is someone doesn't manage to put the slider and the stick in the same position when closing the unit up for re-assembly. If you miss the key-ing of the slider to the actual switch the slider will be rendered inoperative.

Most likely someone has reassembled the unit so that the switch is not contacting the internal switch. They need to be in same position (Hold ON or Hold OFF) as each other when the case is screwed on to the machine inside.

Usually the cable to the OW head is cracked. You will find resistance varies as you wiggle and of course when the head moves.......

Check the overwrite head resistance, should be close to 0. It sounds to me like the cable is dying (very common fault). You're extremely lucky it hasn't so far died trying to write the TOC - end of story, blank disk forever. It's possible it could be mechanical, head not getting close enough to spinning disk, but one way or another that unit is lethal to MD's. Once the OW head goes, any time you put a perfectly formed MD with music on it, and press the Track Mark button - presto blank disk, Some of us keep a dead unit for precisely that purpose It beats all the pfaffing around with protected tracks and the like. Time to hit the 'bay for fresh meat... unless you want to become our next MD repairman. There's a chap in Hungary who has been very successful with this sort of thing lately, NGY. Before that we had Jim Hoggarth, our very own MD repair guru who seems to have faded out. I did this job exactly once and it just about killed me even with the help of a very skilled friend - just to prove it could be done. But honestly a unit this old is probably not worth saving. PS please don't cross post. Everyone here reads everything, and I deleted your second copy of this thread.

What you're describing sounds more electronic in nature, sadly. Mechanical faults are usually a lot more consistent, Do you see a lot of head "shimmering" (wobble from side to side) as a disk plays? That's a bad (but not fatal) sign that alignment is off meaning a recalibration. But you would need some advanced tools for that, I think. It could also be you have some disks which are borderline. It's very hard to sort out which is which, unless you go back to first principles. And almost nobody has the gear, knowledge and repair ability. Start by checking power supply voltages.

Presumably it depends on what damage was done. If the charging circuits (only) are messed up, then Philippe is right, and certainly worth a shot. I would tend to think that application of 6V might have had other effects. In this case nothing short of major disassembly and analysis is going to work. It does seem likely, on reflection, that even 6V probably did not blow up anything more than the very first stages of the power supply. Bravo Philippe for thinking outside the box!

Apart from simple lubrication (and remember, LESS is MORE!) u are going to have to do an alignment methinks. Start by looking at the errors using the built in error display, and see if they display a pattern (there will be errors before you ever see one yourself by the disk skipping).

No. Noise cancelling only started after Sony had already moved to diskless devices such as the NW-S756. Sorry.

Philippeb is your man. I've not used this method of MD transcription and I have never had a Portadisc in my hands. Sorry. Having said that, you will need a piece of software that records WAV input. Possible candidates: - Audacity/CoolEdit96/CoolEdit2000 (all the same, different versions) - Windows Recorder (not sure about XP and later, but the W98 and W2K systems both have a program called WAVEREC.EXE included) - Sound Forge 9 (a copy comes free with many digital devices from Sony) or 10 - VLC (which has a recording function) or ffmpeg (both based on same technology). All of these can use the Windows Mixer, however often a superior sound card will have its own drivers and mixer which allows tweaking the sound.

Reboot. Otherwise somehow there may be traces left of them and Windows will figure out to install them AGAIN. Make sure that there's only ONE NetMD file shows up in the display, and that it is the UNSIGNED one we gave you here that will work with all units. You can check the version number by inspecting the properties of the file before you install it and then check that this is the version that the installer is pointing to. You'll have to make quite sure you turn off driver signing for each device that you install with this driver. ie each time you install a new MD unit that requires the driver.

Sorry in haste.... You have to get rid of all the copies of NetMD drivers from C;\Windows\inf It's necessary to search all oem<nn>.inf for ones with the NetMD... there will be a bunch ... and delete them.

Reinstall SS. Over the top. No need to uninstall. Presumably the latest hack-panic-fix-autoupdate messed up something. Hopefully you won't lose any protected tracks, install should be ok at getting the rights back. However do not do not trust the system with protected tracks. Always put them through file conversion tool immediately if you can. And prevent updates until you did that.

Yup I believe their silence in the manual is very telling. All the consumer decks have the screed about not making copies. I believe the E10/11/12 do not have that couple of pages Another device that defeats it is the Behringer Ultra Match Pro 2496 - as you pointed out. I decided with all the MD decks in this house, it would be better to get that than yet another deck for purely that feature. YMMV.

all it takes is for someone to hit the track mark button and the disk is blank. Usually the ribbon cable cracks. Unless you have extremely good eyesight and an extremely steady hand with a soldering iron, I think this project is not for you. Better to buy something else.

Busted overwrite head. Standard problem. Have to fix it or throw the machine away.

oops, I forgot one more way. If you can get an HHB Portadisc http://www.ebay.com/itm/HHB-Portadisc-MDP500-Professional-Minidisc-Field-Record-/120834359500 This device DOES output a USB stream directly. Standard Play (SP) only, but that's what you have. Probably overkill unless your recording is VERY special.

Yup well done. Stuck mechanism. Probably replacing the caps undid some sort of safety interlock, I bet you'll find they're not actually blown. Kind regards

Note: most PC sound cards don't seem to care about SCMS. I would take the optical transfer instead of analogue any day of the week.

There IS another way to get data off that disk. You can play it back through the optical out of a deck into a computer that will accept the optical input. This means a sound card in your pc which you might have to add. This will allow you to record in whatever format you feel like, since what is transmitted by optical is the standard 16-bit (or so) WAV format like a CD.