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sfbp

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Everything posted by sfbp

  1. I think your problem is very simple. Don't change it back to the old password.
  2. Well I went out and spent $8.95 on a spudger and related tools, something I've never had before. Very interesting! sfbp
  3. Are you sure the following doesn't work? "You can quickly erase all the tracks and data of the MD at the same time. Note that once a recording has been erased, you cannot retrieve it. Be sure to check the contents of the disc you want to erase. In stop mode, keep pressing ERASE and slide REC to the right. "All Erase?" and " Push Erase" appear in the display alternately. To cancel erasing, press . Press ERASE again. "Toc Edit" flashes in the display. When erasing finishes, "BLANK DISC" appears."
  4. Something is preventing you from entering the password. Check it's not your caps lock setting, passwords are cAsE-SeNsItIVe. Let's hope it's just that.
  5. I don't understand what point you are trying to make. MD is a compressed format. An MD holds much less than a CD. Therefore it won't hold as many songs, at a comparable bit rate. Simple mathematics.
  6. You might be synching the old password. make sure Javascript is on for sonyinsider.com the other possibility is that your computer is infected.
  7. SP is not the same as (uncompressed) WAV (this you clearly recognize). The capacity of an MD is about 150MB. The capacity of a CD is between 700 and 800 MB. Happy New Year!
  8. 1. It's not THE way, some of the problem is the adjustment of the unit itself 2. You need something like this: http://www.amazon.com/Crosse-Technology-BC-700-Battery-Charger/dp/B000RSOV50 Moved to MD tips and tricks
  9. It seems to be fine in W10 (judging by reports, that is - I've no intention of trying it myself!) I think what happens (on reflection) is something along the lines of: Windows caches something not cacheable in its attempt to optimize things. Sony then does some nasty trick with self modifying code, or perhaps updates some certificates we simply don't know the details of, to secure its encryption in an ongoing manner. All fine, but the result no longer matches what Windows cached. Safe mode probably clears the cache (I'll bet there are other ways). It may also be that Windows own certificates change and Sony's encryption is tied to the machine keys, with the same general outline as above.
  10. Is this the right battery? (sorry in a rush, if its the same as R50 then you could try that one....) http://www.powerexpert.co.uk/digital-camera-battery/Sony/LIP-8.html
  11. Don't worry about things that are plain WRONG... eg 0 instead of +3 or whatever. What you're looking for is voltages that are more than a couple of percent BELOW what they should be when the bare minimum is supplied to the power terminals. It needs to work even with the battery almost exhausted, see? That's why the bench PS is so useful. But again, I cannot be sure of the relevance to this model. It may be that all was much simpler back then. The other thing is to try to clean any contacts for buttons, although the press-bubble type probably cannot be fixed by doing this... should be sealed and stay sealed.
  12. Sorry to say I tried to clean up the other thread (frankly it would have been better here anyway) and deleted it by mistake. Sorry, Ala. One notable point, DO NOT use rechargeables in the AA battery case.
  13. There's the silly French-mandated volume cap which is implemented on many units (not necessarily the RH910) in such a way (dumb extra resistance IIRC) as to muddy the sound. I would DEFINITELY take it off (needs access to service mode, which you will figure out!) and of course remember not to turn up the volume all the way.
  14. You're doing fine. I double-checked a couple of hours ago and came to roughly the same conclusions. Sony does helpfully put a lot of "expected" voltages on the Schematics. You're going to have to become familiar with them, starting with the one for the power board. I can't help since I don't have an R30 to compare, but the diagrams should be a pretty good reference.
  15. Great! I'd get that replacement battery lined up... I ordered 4 when I read about the fix as I have at least 2 almost dead LIP-4WM's lying around. You did well starting with the R50, by all accounts the most solid ever made. I love the MZ-R5ST which is is almost (but not quite) the same model, but with the connections wired in for optical in and out via the docking station. I started with the MZ-RH1 and then worked backwards when I found that it wasn't so durable that I would actually use it for playing in my pocket. It's good as uploader, for sure, but many of the earlier models have nice features too. The RH910 has a really nice sound for playback.
  16. Exactly. Unlike later models (I have never worked on an R30) there's nothing saying exactly what you should be adjusting and what levels to expect. This may take some poking around in earlier and later models' service manuals (Sony often omitted to repeat stuff that was the same between upgrades). I note that there's no "key check" which is a semi-automated way to make sure every button works. Doesn't mean it's not there, though.
  17. More likely a power adjustment needs to be made. You will need a regulated powersupply on your lab bench to do this.
  18. I think you cannot run the NH1 completely without battery when transferring. I think there are some dips in the USB power supply. In turn this may depend a bit on your computer and how many milliamps the USB is rated for. These dips could compromise the speed of rotation of the MD. Recording MD takes a lot of power. Try that, and let us know. Sony was still playing around with different technologies when they designed the NH1, and they had not figured out how to charge and do USB at the same time. The RH910 and the later RH1 are ok without battery inserted, I think. Certainly for upload (TO the PC), not 100% certain about TO the minidisc.
  19. I'd suspect the power source. Did you get the ORIGINAL Sony 6V power supply with (I think) green writing on it? Exact model you did get anyway, might be helpful. Also the state of the LIP-4WM battery may be important. There's a recent article on how to replace the business part of this with a cheap, available battery (real LIP-4WMs will cost upwards of $50 a piece which is outrageous).
  20. I have a feeling it's slightly more complicated than you describe. IIRC, you get away with copying the files (and working with the copy) because you have already installed the Sony/Windows DLL set with Sonic Stage. They (Sony) play some tricks with the disk ID (SCSI or ASPI, I don't recall) and the linux team had to do some clever stuff to run QHiMDXfer on linux. It's all in the source code, so you can take a look if interested. I helped and even found some major bugs which had prevented it from being used at all in the real world. Not to say I fixed them - I left that to others. I tried working on the project myself, but it seems that my standards were not up to those of the originators (or at least the individual in charge). Whenever I tried to do anything involving Windows (I don't run or develop in linux) I became the target of criticism and ridicule. My contributions were rejected, with an offer to let me fork the project myself (the classic "fork off" gesture hahahaha). Maybe you would have more luck since you speak German and can argue with them - however I think almost everyone involved has moved on. One of the things I did was to make a version of QHiMdXfer which plays ATRAC CD's on a PC (currently only possible in automobile head units, and a couple of all-in-one low-budget consumer bookshelf models). The other thing which they never got around to (I think - maybe someone else knows different) was properly writing disks of any description. So it may not be a matter of "User interface features" but actual core ability to do certain things. In addition, #linux-minidisc does not handle the AAL (Atrac Advanced Lossless) format. The most interesting possibility would have been to send real SP over USB to a NetMD unit. However I think someone figured out that this was simply impossible because what happens to the data at the portable-MD end of the transaction is controlled completely by the hardware. Sigh.
  21. I see what you have been doing, please ignore my first response. Yes the QHiMDXfer program will decode the files in the container .HMA files. But there is really not much need, in my opinion. The major point you seem to make is that the files are not encrypted. However in most cases encrypted files can now be played using VLC or ffmpeg so this is not really an issue. For those people who cannot endure the encrypted files (because, for example they wish to edit them), they can be decrypted using the File Conversion Tool. Not to sound un-receptive. This is the starting point of the linux-minidisc project, which we haven't heard much of for a few years.
  22. Bravo! Just a word of warning for you and anyone out there who thinks this sounds easy - it ain't. In particular, aligning a HiMD unit is quite a bit harder, though I would recommend the exact same sequence. Mainly the difference there is you need 3 kinds of disk, one of which you must make yourself, since the part from Sony is no longer available. More about that anon when someone asks. Meanwhile you have earned yourself a pat on the back and the title "Minidisc Repairman". For sure! Stephen
  23. Great job Jimma! Quick question: did you use shiny tape (I suspect so) or "Magic Tape" (the default over here)? The two have quite different qualities. And the width of the tape may make a difference (as opposed to the thickness). I am going to try packing tape which looks about the same as yours... will it be too thick, do you think? It has the advantage of being wide enough that you don't have to use two pieces, whereas the only size of tape like what I think you used (I used to call it Sellotape from the brand when I lived there), and that I have, is quite narrow and I am wondering whether that would be a nuisance.
  24. Something in the back of my head is a remark made by the worthy Jim, that servicing is mostly about lubrication (and in really bad cases replacement of gears). It may be that the stepper motor requires one (tiny) drop of oil. Be very very careful though.
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