al.adab

I see. I'll then wait. Sony might launch yet another MD player model at some stage. The switches look like two tiny pins, don't they? They're sitting at the very bottom of the unit, right? The one closer to the Display is taller. Should they both be of the same size? Anyway, I tried pushing + releasing the smaller one several times, and...IT WORKED! I've been trying 1Giga MDs for the past half an hour, and the transfer option failed to work only twice. YOU'RE A STAR! You can't imagine how grateful I am. Thank you very very much. I don't mean to get carried away now, but do you reckon that the unit needs some cleaning (specifically the very pin I pushed)? Would canned air (of the type you use for SRL cameras) would do?

I'm glad to hear it's possible to narrow it down to at least one hypothesis. I'd also be glad to have the unit serviced or replaced, except that the experience I had yesterday at the Abu Dhabi (UAE) Sony "service centre" was quite discouraging. I later called the Sony UAE customer service to report it and ask for the address of an alternative service centre in the UAE...and it turned out that they themselves had never heard about the MZ-RH1...so wouldn't know what to tell me... ...anyway, the unit was bought in Europe in Octobe 2006, and it was probably given a standard one-year warranty...I can't remember and don't know how to find out (again, neither Sony UAE customer service nor Sony Abu Dhabi "service centre" helped me with this)... do you (or does anyone) know if Sony offers some kind of rescue scheme whenever the local support service is not helpful? I wouldn't mind shipping my unit to some Sony competent technical centre (and paying for it + relative repair expenses) so long as I'm reassured that it's in good hands...thanks again. I'm glad to hear it's possible to narrow it down to at least one hypothesis. I'd also be glad to have the unit serviced or replaced, except that the experience I had yesterday at the Abu Dhabi (UAE) Sony "service centre" was quite discouraging. I later called the Sony UAE customer service to report it and ask for the address of an alternative service centre in the UAE...and it turned out that they themselves had never heard about the MZ-RH1...so wouldn't know what to tell me... ...anyway, the unit was bought in Europe in Octobe 2006, and it was probably given a standard one-year warranty...I can't remember and don't know how to find out (again, neither Sony UAE customer service nor Sony Abu Dhabi "service centre" helped me with this)... do you (or does anyone) know if Sony offers some kind of rescue scheme whenever the local support service is not helpful? I wouldn't mind shipping my unit to some Sony competent technical centre (and paying for it + relative repair expenses) so long as I'm reassured that it's in good hands...thanks again.

I know. I repeatedly tested it, and that's what's happening. Only very occasionally the 1Giga does works, and that's when I repeatedly open+close the unit lid with the MD inside. The 80min invariably works. The Sony on-line support just ignored my query, and the local support centre...wasn't supportive at all. This is so frustrating. The people at the local Sony "support" centre had never even seen an MZ-RH1 before, let alone know how to fix it. Appalling. Anyway, I had a look at the tutorial, and I noticed that Windows Vista is not mentioned, so I got a bit paranoid about it and I thought I'd probably wait until I travel again and am able to get hold of a proper Sony support centre, if that's not wishful thinking. Many thanks for your help, and please do get in touch if you find a solution.

Many thanks Avrin for the comprehensive information. Before I go ahead with re-installation procedure: I've just got hold of ten 80min Hi-MD formatted disks (which I haven't used for ages, for a long while I've been using 1Giga disks only), and I've tried them all. Result: the transfer option works perfectly with 80min Hi-MD disks. At this stage, I tried alternating 80min to 1Giga disks. Result: if I insert an Hi-MD 80min disk, the transfer option WORKS. If I insert a 1Giga disk, the transfer function DOES NOT WORK. Shall I still go ahead with the procedure described in your latest post? In the other post you said something I couldn't quite understand, I'm afraid: "(...) If not, try using a different type of disc (a Hi-MD formatted 80 minute or a 1 Gb Hi-MD blank, respectively). If it works with a different type, then the write-protection switch for the corresponding type of disc on the unit itself has failed." What do you mean exactly "...the switch (...) as failed"? THANKS AGAIN FOR YOUR HELP!!!

got it. The unit can record to discs of the same type on its own. All the unit's functions work perfectly, except for the file transfer through SonicStage.

Thanks for your suggestion, I tried it but it won't transfer. The MD player is spotless, and it's a complete mystery why something like this should happen all of a sudden and for no apparent reason. I also sent a message to Sony hoping they can advise me on-line and I don't have to go through their rather expensive repair system network.

Hello there, I connected my Sony MD MZ-RH1 to a H.Packard laptop (operating system Windows Vista Home Premium) for months through SonicStage 4.3. All of a sudden - I can no longer upload/download music: no matter what I try to do, I get a message that "the device/media is write-protected. (Error Code 0000664f)". All the other SonicStage functions are working correctly. I have tried to solve the issue by re-installing SonicStage, unfortunately to no avail. I still get the same message as above. I have unsuccessfully also tried to download music to/from several minidisks (HI-MD, "old" - that is, with my music on it - and blank). Despite the fact that none of them is protected (ie, I made sure that the tiny switch on the minidisk isn't on the "lock" position), I still get the same message as above. Eventually, I got hold of a Sony MD MZ-NHF800 through a friend and tested SonicStage on it: all the transfer options are working correctly. When I tried again to connect my MZ-RH1, though, I got the same message as above: "the device/media is write protected (...)". It looks like something is wrong with my MZ-RH1, but I can't figure out what it might be. I checked its menu settings and it's all as it used to be. I also checked it through MyComputer>Properties>Hardware>Properties, and the PC tells me that "the device is working properly". I also tried the option MyComputer>Properties>Tools>Error-Checking, and it tells me that "The disk is write-protected" (notice that it's possible to perform an Error-Checking on the MZ-NHF800 with the same minidisk inserted). Does anyone know what the problem might be? Many thanks in advance for your help.

hello, I used Sonicstage CP 4.3 for some months and it always worked fine. I can't remember exactly where I downloaded it from, but possibly from upgrading the version of Sonicstage I got with my minidisc player MZ-RH1. Yesterday I was forced to format + re-install Windows Vista on my HP Pavilion, and had to downloaded a new version of Sonicstage. I got it from http://support.sony-europe.com/DNA/sonicstage/sstage_dl.asp. It does present one (quite annoying) problem: whenever I try to transfer music files from any HI-MD to My Library...it just ignores me. Specifically: as usual, I select the file I want to transfer to my PC, click on the red arrow direction My Library, and...well, Sonicstage just reloads the content of my Hi-MD and doesn't transfer anything. So far I tried two things (hoping it might help): re-install Sonicstage (nothing changed) and install the "Windows Vista compatibility driver" (nothing changed either). Can anyone please help me? Many thanks in advance!