BearBoy

Really useful information. Thanks for posting it Kevin.

Seems like you've solved the mystery of that MDS-JB930 then. Good luck with the 470.

Glad to hear you got it fixed and it's playing music once again. I just need to swap the belt on my MDS-JB940 and then all of mine are operational once more.

Great news. Glad to hear you've got it sorted.

Not sure if any of the below helps? I recorded a couple of songs from Spotify earlier this week using my MDS-JB980. The recordings are mastered very loud and, with the digital recording level set at default, they show as being pretty much brick walled at 0dB on the meters on the MDS-JB980 and never really fall below -4dB (not a lot of dynamic range...) Despite this, I cannot hear any audible clipping either through headphones or the analogue outputs. The MDS-JB980 I did this on is also "UK tuned".

What have you got the input level set to? Does it happen when listening to a MiniDisc or just an input?

It's just a standard mini USB connection afaik. Physically, at least. I've never actually tried connecting mine to a PC. I suspect Sony were just advising people to use the supplied cable as they knew it was fully wired. There's an FAQ covering it here: https://www.sony.co.uk/electronics/support/portable-music-players-minidisc-portable/mz-n710/articles/00203564 I mam sure someone here will have connected theirs to a PC though and will be able to confirm.

I know nothing about ribbon cables but is there any chance that the ones used by Sony in their MiniDisc decks are in any way "standard"? There seem to be thousands of different ribbon cables available on eBay; I wonder if any of them would work?

Good news! Long may it continue.

Fingers crossed it's a permanent fix! Did you clean the ribbon cable connections or just re-seat them?

No, I'd read on here somewhere about someone having issues because there was disc stuck in the drive but mine was empty.

Glad to hear you've fixed your MDS-JB940 John. And looks like you now have a working spare player too! I had a bit of a panic the other night when replacing the belt in an MDS-J980 as it wouldn't turn on when I connected everything back up following the belt swap. I removed the drive again and then put everything back and, hey presto, everything was operational again. I can't be sure but I suspect it may have been down to one of the ribbon cables not being seated correctly.

You obviously need to buy some more decks then Per

Having said that, Amazon.de seem to have plenty (in different pack sizes too): https://www.amazon.de/MiniDisc-Hüllen-Leerhüllen-MiniDisc-Kassetten-transparent-hochklar/dp/B00X2KBLIK/

These cases are back in stock at Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00X2KBLU8 Only one set left though!

My daughters have got thousands of those things in every colour imaginable. Never occurred to me they could be used to fix a deck. I ordered another £5 special (well, £3.50) from eBay last night for my MDS-JB940.

Is this the Russian video you were looking for?

I replaced the belt in an MDS-JB980 this evening. I had intended to follow 2many's method but it became clear to me quite quickly that I was going to struggle with that (you might have more success if you're more dexterous than I am, have some more suitable tools and you are not in need of new reading glasses...) so I ended up following kgallen's method (using one of my daughter's hairpins to re-affix the spring). There's a video of someone replacing the belt in an MDS-JE780 here: It looks very similar to the MDS-JB980 inside, although one of the earth leads is connected differently. In fact, when I had my MDS-JB980s open earlier I noticed that a number of the circuit boards were labelled "Sony MDS-JE780" and a couple of others "Sony MDS-JB940". Sony obviously used the same parts in a number of their decks.

Same here. I bought my MDS-JE500 back in 1997, together with an MZ-E30 for portable use, and never got around to upgrading to anything more exotic whilst MiniDisc was current. I've only ended up buying a whole load of decks and Walkmen with MDLP, Type-R, Type-S etc since the format became "obsolete". Still trying to convince myself that I really don't need to try HiMD out...

£9.99? Wow, that it is a bargain. Very much doubt I will be able to find one that cheap but I'll see what turns up.

Great story Kevin. I've never really thought of looking for MD stuff in antique/second hand shops. Maybe I need to keep my eyes peeled next time I'm being dragged around somewhere... I've also never used LP4 for anything but it sounds perfect for audiobooks.

Thanks Kevin and thanks again for your advice. I think it may well have been one of the ribbon cables (not really sure what else it might have been) but I did try re-seating them before I took the whole mechanism back out and it didn't make any difference. Anyhow, it's working now. I think I'll still keep my eye open for an MDS-JE480 to squirrel away as a donor deck so thanks for the suggestion. There's no rush now though so I can be patient and try to get one at a good price.

So now I have two working MDS-JB980s. After sorting the belt issue on my first one I thought I just take a look inside the other and see if there was anything obvious that might be causing the blank disc issue. I had noticed two white wires soldered onto the over write head when I was changing the belt on my first machine and was wondering, probably somewhat optimistically, that it might be as simple as one of these having become disconnected. It actually turned out to be something even more glaring. I am not sure if this is common to other Sony MD decks but the MDS-JB980 has a rectangular metal plate stuck (literally - it is held on with a combination of double side sticky tape and glue) to the underside of the case lid. I know this because when this machine arrived it made an alarming metallic clunking sound when I removed it from its box. I was really worried at the time that it had got seriously damaged in transit but it transpired that this plate had fallen off and, luckily, had not caused any damage to the inside of the deck. At the time I stuck it back on with some insulation tape and then, after making sure the deck worked, packed it away as a spare. When I opened it up today I saw that the plate had fallen off again and was sat resting on top of the drive mechanism - quite probably resting on the top of the over write head. The insulation tape I had used to stick in back in place previously had re-adhered to the back of the chassis and so the plate itself wasn't moving around and making the metallic clunking sound I had heard when it first arrived. I removed the plate and ran a few tests with the lid off (just titling my test disc and then ejecting to get the TOC writing process going) and when I reinserted the disc I didn't get a "blank disc" message and the disc was playable. I relocated the deck back into my office system and have made some successful test recordings. Just wondering if I need to put the metal plate back in place? Not really sure what it does. Maybe some sort of shielding? All in all a successful evening. I've ordered a replacement belt for my MDS-JB940 now so will tackle that next.

Okay, panic over. No idea what I'd done but I took the drive mechanism out again to see if I could see any damage anywhere. Everything looked okay so I put it all back together again and this time it turned on. When I reconnected the power the first time there was a faint click when the standby light came on. Following the reassembly there were two. I must have done something wrong but no idea what. Just glad it appears to be alive again. And the eject mechanism works fine now.

Argh! So I went ahead and tried to replace the eject mechanism belt in my "good" MDS-JB980. Followed the instructions elsewhere on this forum. Getting the belt on was a bit fiddly but I took it slowly and was very careful. Put everything back together, turned on at the mains and the small red standby light came on above the power switch but the deck won't turn on. Have tried the button and via the remote and nothing happens. I have checked the two ribbon cables and they both appear to be undamaged and seated correctly and I reconnected the two earth leads back to their original locations. Help! Anyone got any ideas about what might have gone wrong?