Morning, I have a Sony MDM-X4 Multitrack Recorder that upon startup, displays "Low Battery". It will not save any system settings. The manual indicates that Sony needs to service the unit to replace it, but I am hoping it is something you can do yourself. If so, what is the procedure? Is it a generic 'button' battery or is it proprietary? My apologies if this is a repost, but I could not find another post using search. Also, is it still possible to get the firmware upgrade as detailed here: "These units all seem to have an EPROM chip inside with a decal that identifies it as firmware version 1.20 (part no. 759-467-95). Sony U.S. will fix the unit if you send it to a repair center, but they will charge you $150 for shop time. If you are fairly handy with srewdriver, though, the EPROM upgrade to Firmware version 1.30 can be had for free, and the new chip has fixed all of my unit's bugs. To check what version your deck has, remove the two black screws above the output jacks on the rear panel and the 10 or so screws on the bottom of the unit (Caution: remove only the bottom srews that have arrows pointing at them). The top then lifts off like a clamshell (do this carefully so as not to unplug jumper cables), and you can read the deccal on the chip. I reccomend you wear a static strap while doing this, as the inside is loaded with surface mount devices and quad flat packs. To get your upgrdrade (part no. 875948693), call Sony U.S. Professional at 1 (800) 686-7669 and ask to be transferred to a support engineer or technician in California. (I say this because they seem to want to charge you for the chip if you talk to someone at Sony's repair center in Itasca, Illinois, or Teaneck, New Jersey.) The guys in California consider this a "software" upgrade and will ship it out FedEx at no charge." -- http://www.minidisc.org/part_Sony_MDM-X4.html I have yet to contact Sony, but figured I would ask if anyone has had any luck in recent years. Thanks for any and all info!
