sfbp

Jan, I'm impressed. Somewhat sceptical, but impressed nonetheless. I want OP to be sure he doesn't wreck the machine by the process of opening it up when it actually might still be software. Many devices get ruined because the person opening them has not got the correct directions. So i would recommend chasing down exactly when this happens. Eg if you get heating when windows has not even booted yet, then the hardware issue may be important. Another thing that may be wrong is that the CPU fan has failed and there is no cooling. Can you hear the fan and can you feel any warm air being expelled? On my IBM laptop I was able to buy a replacement fan unit. On desktop machines, I always end up taking the fan apart and putting one drop of bicycle oil in the bearing. YMMV. But I would start by running as little software as possible and seeing if it heats up. You might pause the boot sequence for example. If you find it ONLY heats up when you boot all the way into Windows, then you need to consider the software issues. BEFORE disassembling the machine. So both Jan and I may be right, or one only, or neither..... sorry to say.

Sorry but this problem is not Vaio although many Vaios and other laptop models have it from time to time. Almost certainly some software component is running 100% cpu (or at least all of one core in a multiple core processor eg 25% in a 4-core). The only sensible way to find this is with process explorer (a free download from Microsoft at www.sysinternals.com). Once you've isolated the process and if possible killed it then you can try to figure out how to fix the problem. I would be checking things like printer drivers (HP in particular) and Skype. In essence what usually causes this is poor or misconfigured software attempting to poll a non working or non existent device. Its just possible malware is involved but not very likely. Good luck!

If you upload to PC you will need to run the File Conversion Tool (from within Sonicstage!!!!) to remove encryption (DRM). Once you've done that, the Sound Forge 9 or 10 editor will allow you to do full editing of ATRAC files. Hope this helps. If you have more questions (or clarification of what I just wrote), go ahead and ask.

Hello and welcome By far the easiest and most reliable way to get data off your legacy MD's is using the last MD Sony produced called the MZ-RH1 (or MZ-M200). This will upload to PC at 4 to 10 times real time... and I have yet to improve on the result with any other technique involving optical (or analogue) playback. They are expensive. The MD format is basically 24 bits in principle, 20 bits in practice with a floating point stem or characteristic, which enables a very high dynamic range without using a lot of bits on disk. If you can upload, then SCMS ceases to be a problem. However you have to watch out for encryption. Luckily Sony provided another tool which happens to solve that problem, although it was not their intention. Latterly VLC and ffmpeg can get around the DRM (encryption) on the most common formats (not including AAL which isn't encrypted to begin with). You can beat SCMS with several devices, since "pro" equipment ignores it.

There is no particular shortage of the gumstick batteries - indeed, almost 2x per year we hear on here of a new supplier or brand. On top of that with the battery reviving computer powered chargers such as BC700 very few of them need to be discarded. In fact they are quite long-lived, if treated properly. The biggest problem seems to be decomposition at the contacts (often the battery door) and the necessity to clean up and shine the contacts afterwards. The Li Ion batteries (RH1, NH1 etc) are another matter entirely. In the short term they tend to produce more reliable output (hours of playing time) but in the long term they inevitably die and are impossible or very expensive to replace. More than the value of the unit in some cases. YMMV

1500 quid to recover a few CD->MD files of less than SP quality? Better solution is simply play them back at x1 over an optical cable.

It may be a screen failure - Jim would know, except that contacting him at the moment is not easy. However my first thought (if I had the unit in my hand) would be to try a service on the power circuits. I'd clean all the contacts, check that the voltage is getting to the main board, and note whether this problem varies with different sources of power (a regulated PS would help here). Once I got a sensible power supply (i.e. checked that the 3V one Sony gave me is putting out a reasonable voltage under load), I'd do the first couple of adjustments on page 17. (Do the preliminaries on the previous page such as temperature setting, but UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES execute the procedure in Section 3-2, "Initialize the adjustment value"). At this point the problem may well be solved, however if it wasn't then I would conclude the lcd is itself at fault and give up. You should find (if you don't have one) a remote with display on it (most should work) to do the testing.

Hmm.... this ebay listing is expired. Now what? Nobody bought it so this is instead of a listing here? Might be better to post the pictures here before they disappear from eBay?

Downloads is now back. Please report any problems folks (by PM to myself or Christopher or Richard)

That headphone connection is a point of stress. Hence Sony's design with the 4-fingered side-flange which performs dual duty: 1. Relay control signals from wired remote 2. Takes strain off headphone. So the advice would be in future NEVER use with bare headphones if you have a wired remote available. They pass the audio straight through so it's not like there will be any SQ loss. Stephen

Update: I recently got my hands on the Japanese version of the NWZ-755, namely the NW-755. You may be interested to learn that it (and also the others in that series) has the capability to record ATRAC directly at the bitrate of your choice from the analog (line) input. Even at the mystic 128kbps (I could never fathom why HiMD didn't support that rate!) ATRAC3+. There are twelve icons on the main screen instead of 9. Another example of the domestic Japanese consumer getting superior products. I am grateful to those (eg Richard) who over the years have kept up with these developments which are now accessible to those of us who can be bothered to make a few extra clicks in our browsers, via translation and using proxy bidding sites to buy this stuff.

You can see we have changed (updated) the forum software. While we work out what other features are missing, please hold the comments until we have had a chance to complete the migration. In particular, the downloads links are all inoperable. But I'm reasonably sure they will all come back. Sorry for the inconvenience.

You need the MZ-RH1 (or MZ-M200). No ands ifs or buts..... Sorry, it's effectively a hardware limitation.

Shoestring/MD??? (as opposed to Quincy, ME?) It exists. But it's legacyMD only, and costs thousands. The stuff about copying is no longer true. With the MZ-RH1 (MZ-M200) and Sound Forge 9 (or later) you can edit ATRAC files to your heart's content. Provided you decrypt them using the File Conversion Tool.

Update: the NW-ZX1 and NW-F88x work with Sonic Stage Ultimate right out of the box as ATRAC audio devices. They both support drag and drop of all ATRAC files as well, but SS makes it easier to control what ends up on the device (because the conversion is done batchwise for you, for example from AAL->HiSP, which drag-and-drop has no knowledge about). Note: as with all Network Walkmen the NWZ- prefix means "Export model, no ATRAC support". The Japanese ones are always NW-whatever. So be careful if you want to play your precious ATRAC library without conversion.. be sure to get the NW- version.

The driver is not part of the Ultimate (or indeed the online-from-Sony) package. It is here: (assuming you have 64-bits Windows, or you would likely not have any problem)

1. Get rid of all NetMD devices (see the stickied post on "Slow MZ-RH1 upload") in device manager (you will have to uncover the hidden ones using this technique. 2. Is your Vista 32 bits or 64? Pick the correct driver from the downloads section and "update" or install the driver (probably a yellow exclamation mark) in Device Manager using that (unzipped) driver package.

One would be hard pressed to beat this price: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Sony-MXD-D5C-5-Disc-CD-Changer-MiniDisc-Player-Recorder-High-End-Vintage-/291459588345

Well... you can not make them all work at once. For XP you can use the driver here, regardless of whether the original one with the deck works: For Windows-64 (likely the version of 7 & 8) you need: AFAIK the 780 is the same as the 980. You are welcome to poke inside the driver and figure out what PID the device is presenting (look in the yellow question mark entry in Device Manager). The MDS-JB980 is x0081. If it's the same, your only problem is you didn't have the driver I just sent link to. Good luck!

Good. Don't forget to install the NetMD760 device driver (64 bits) for each and every device you need to use with SS. Otherwise the SS install will try and use the 32-bit versions. One more thing: a word to the wise. Turn off automatic updates to prevent Windows Update from mashing any of the DLLs that SS depends on thereby ruining any still-encrypted OMA files. If you decrypt regularly you ought not to have this problem, but the standard Windows install comes with a bunch of maintenance tasks that run at all hours of the day and night.

At least we have confirmed that the internet was part of the problem. However you won't get anywhere on this hard disk unless you have both: a. the old files and database backed up with Sonic Stage backup tool b. the internet server working (sometimes it does go down) and no block to your connection to it. Do you use proxy server? Do you have any other anti-malware tools installed. TURN THEM ALL OFF. Nothwithstanding, you should be able to start a completely new installation. Thousands have done it. First, go through and clean up the device map and get rid of all hidden NetMDs. (See the stickied post on how to fix the slow upload problem on MZ-RH1) Then get some sort of registry cleaner if you really want to rid the new hard disk of everything to do with SS. However, see below. The files you care about on your old HD are (I think) in C:Program Files (x86)Common FilesSony SharedOpenMGOMGRIGHT (that directory is hidden!) While you're poking around down there you can try and copy all that stuff in OpenMG over top of the same thing on the new HD. What I don't understand is why a complete install OVER THE TOP OF WHAT YOU HAVE ALREADY doesn't work. Provided that you don't try to connect NetMD devices for now.

Did you look on the internet? http://www.replacementremotes.com/SONY/Buy-RM-D33M-RMD33M-141880911-Remote-Control.html Most likely this particular one goes with very high end equipment and no one will part with it. However the generic replacements will do fine, as well as the more lowly RM-D43M and suchlike There's one on Amazon UK for 110 pounds, what a ripoff

Did you try letting it run the Sonic Stage Information Restore tool? I'm certain you have to be connected to the internet before it will re-authorize anything. Some reference to the internet is likely causing a crash, especially if you have Windows Firewall on (Hint: turn it off, for now) or if you are running some kind of "protective" anti-virus software. If it won't let you do that, the files may well be on the HD that allow you to recover everything. Don't delete anything yet. If you can see the NetMD this means it's connected. DON'T CONNECT IT (physically) right now. Most likely of all is the program is attempting to load the wrong NetMD driver. You can always inject the right one later.

This behaviour is, unfortunately, by design. You have three options for your existing ATRAC files 1. Go back to the old hard drive and convert them with the File Conversion Tool 2. Go back to the old hard drive and do a Sonic Stage backup followed by a Restore to the new drive 3. Forget SS for these files and use VLC forever more. Won't play AAL but SS will since they are not locked to the old hard drive. The regulars here have learned to run the FCT once a week or whenever they add new files. Sorry for your loss... it's not completely irretrievable though.