Eeyore

Dear Jim, not expecting any further development of this thread (back in January, when I last posted), by chance I rediscovered it yesterday and saw your message! Thanks! Today, I took the lid off and cleaned both the lens and the overwrite head (gosh, the mechanics of it are so delicate) with isopropyl alcohol. The OWH does not seem to be physically affected. I watched it doing its thing after inserting a disc. It lowers down with no gap between it and the disc surface, at least by human standards. I took great care in cleaning the OWH applying as little force as possible. Sadly, to no effect. Can someone elaborate on the causes for a busted OWH. The word "busted" is not very precise, is it. Isn't it just a miniaturized version of those heads found in MC-recorders. Anyways, I have not returned it to the vendor (I hope he is happy now), at least I can use it as a player. Yesterday I found an OWH on ebay (from Germany, where I am too): http://cgi.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150588320289 The vendor says it is new and still in its original packaging. He also says it would fit the JB940. Can somebody confirm this or say otherwise, please? How sensible is it to go and try to replace the OWH myself? Wouldn't I need some testing equipment to do some adjustments in the service menu, or is that usually not necessary. Thanks, Thanks, Thanks! Peter

Hi sfbp, thanks for your attention. There is one minor detail, that I would like to mention, still. I have already mentioned that during my test I had also used a partially recorded disc with the JB940, had done some editing and recording operations on that disc, and that upon ejecting and re-inserting it was blank. However, I noticed that before ejecting the disc, new tracks (created by the JB940) could indeed be played back immediately after recording (leaving rec by pushing stop and pushing play). Does this give a clue as to what exactly could be wrong with the write head? Thanks again, Peter

Ok, thanks, Guru, for your answer. So which do you think is more likely: Is the overwrite head physically broken, or has it "just" suffered mechanical shock which distorted the positioning mechanism. I read somewhere on here that the head should be in contact (or as close as possible) with the disc. Maybe it's is "just" bent out of its way? I did some research prior to buying this deck. As I had to decide between a Yamaha and a Sony one. It was said about the Yamaha, that it has the same laser drive as Sharp's which is prone to fried laser diodes. That's why I turned to Sony. And when I saw the high-end JB940 at a very competitive price the winning bid was quickly placed. Now it seems Sony units also have, albeit with the magnetic head, different problems. So is this a very common problem. Is it even advisable then to by any used Sony deck, considering the threatening prospect of your recorder suddenly being demoted to a simple player? Kind regards, Peter

Hi all, I have just bought a JB940 on ebay. The unit is able to play back minidiscs recorded with an RH1 fine, but unfortunately it suffers the not so uncommon, as I have learned, problem of blank disks. That is, the unit seems to record fine from an analogue source, the sound level bars move, tracks are being made and all that. But whenever I try to play a track just recorded, the only thing I hear is the drive moving forever. Ejecting the disc and inserting it again to the JB940 results in the display showing the "blank disc" message. It also is blank for the RH1. Moreover, when I insert a disc with some tracks from the RH1 (not in HiMD, of course) into the JB940 and do any kind of editing with it, like changing names, recording another track, etc., the disc is completely blank after being ejected. I am resolved to return it to the seller, but before doing so, I just wanted to make sure there is not any relatively easy way for me to restore recording capability. In particular, can somebody say, if that repair guide for blank disc problems with the MZ-N1 (a mobile unit, I suppose), which is sticky in this forum, does in any way apply to the JB940 deck? Thanks very much to anyone trying to be helpful! Regards, Peter