rlegro

Thanks for the followup. To clarify, by "the two steps" reference I just meant the need to uninstall the old driver and SS, reboot, then install both the NetMD driver and 4.3, then reboot again. The two specific steps I meant were installing the NetMD driver and then 4.3, but now that I think back, maybe 4.3 contained the driver in its own routine archive, so that's only one step. Though, if you count the reboots and uninstall routines, you're back up to three or four steps! You see, I was punch-drunk by the time I did this successfully. Anyway, when I de-installed older versions of the driver and Sonic Stage, one of the several SS apps in my program list (I think it was one of those SS update packs) advised that I'd need to reboot, which I did. After that, I installed the new packages. while logged in as Administrator, figuring that would be more reliable. Since I normally don't run the system as the administrator, I then rebooted into my standard user profile. After that I got the "reboot and try again" message from 4.3. Running 4.3 in my standard profile with administrator privileges seemed to fix that as I saw the 4.3 splash screen for the first time, but then I got the "another app is using the database" message. After playing with this awhile and almost giving up, I figured out that the only way this works for me is to be logged in as administrator. Otherwise, as regular user, I get one of the two above error messages, even if I launch the program with administrative priviileges. This is not terribly inconvenient but it is annoying, so maybe when I have another block of time to burn, I'll remove the program and driver again to see what happens when I install them as a standard user.

As you can see, Inquisitor, I edited my message to report that I did finally get it running after one last try. Who knew a Snickers bar and a 20-minute time out could be so productive?

I do thank the many people who have contributed to discussing this problem, and those who have offered solutions. Glad to hear some of you are back up and running. I am, too, finally, after about two working days worth of struggle, On my fairly new 64-bit Windows 7 Home Premium system, my MZ-N1 became a brick. Thanks to support here and elsewhere I finally managed to manually install the NetMD760 driver and get the device properly recognized, but it remained a brick in terms of functionality, since I still couldn't actually do anything with it via Windows. The SonicStage 4.3 Ultimate install at first left me with much the problem I had trying earlier SS versions: I got a "restart your PC and then try running again" error message. Applying Home Premium's limited XP or NT compatibility mode on the application did get me slightly further, namely to the SonicStage splash window, but then another error advising that "the database is being used by another program." No, it's not! And then I thought: What if I logged out as a user and back in as admninistrator? Yup, that worked. The "other program" was my administrator profile, even when it wasn't running, apparently. I originally went through a similar ordeal four years ago with another MD recorder and my then-new Vista machine, but this time it was even worse. Thankfully I didn't have to go to my last-gasp resort: setting up a virtual machine to gain functionality under XP. I'd have to learn how to use one of the third-party virtualware products. I'd simply refuse to spend the money to upgrade to Win 7 Ultimate and its built-in XP virtualization -- that to me would be simpler and more elegant, but still a rip-off. Luckily, I've got an unused but legit copy of XP in stock. But that's a hell of a thing, having to do serious OS surgery just to run a legacy device. How Microsoft ever became the world's leading OS provider and Bill Gates one of the world's richest men still eludes me. Another option might be a Linux driver or Linux running WINE, but I doubt that will succeed either. Patience! This two-step installation approach does work. Remember to use Compatibility mode under program properties (Vista worked for me) before launching Sonic Stage.

I realize the context here involves minidisc format but with respect to PCM, I would like to note that this minidisc owner also has a Sony Hi8 mm video deck, which features a PCM digital audio mode that lets you record about 24 hours on a standard 8mm cassette. However, it does only a basic form of track indexing. This is great for archiving or long-term recording of live or broadcast sources although not quite so handy when actually trying to locate a track, unless you invest some timein cataloging. Anyway, it's one hell of a two-fer. The only other drawback is that unless you can replicate a tape, you're putting an awful lot of material on one cassette, so it if it goes bad you're in trouble. Then again, I've found Hi8 cassettes to be pretty reliable -- more so than the hardware or firmware (had to replace the deck's logic board, once).

I've had my MZ-RH910 for four years and while it wasn't an immediate problem, battery charging has been an issue through most of my ownership. I've now popped for third-party battery sticks (now using a couple of them from a US firm called Hitech, which I bought online a year or two ago). While I do get charging, the process is not as described in the manual. The unit's screen remains blank but if I leave the charger plugged in awhile and keep hitting the "cancel" button, I will eventually get a flashing "CHARGING" message. After some minutes, the length of which varies, this message disappears and I repeat the process. Annoying, but it works. Thank goodness for the AA-battery plug-in unit and that the unit will at least run off the charger. Other than this, the unit has been one little sweet machine. What does seem to help is -- as others have mentioned -- cleaning the contacts. If you had to clean the contacts within the player unit itself, I don't see how you could. I have not tried rigging a compressed aluminum contact extender, as one user did, but that makes sense to me. I've done it with other small, battery-powered gizmos. It seems that their pressure contacts do become relaxed in some cases over time. so this, too, is worth exploring.