kgallen

If you're in "Standby", will it take a disc in? (Probably not, but I'm just wondering how the mechanics of the drive are "sitting" at the moment.). If you're in service mode, can you go to the Check item that reads the Iop value? This requires the main PCB CPU to access the EEPROM on the drive. From recent comments it seems the drive is "dead" (as in unresponsive rather than broken). We need to start narrowing down if it's getting any power (+5V and +3.3V rails) or whether the main PCB CPU is just not seeing the drive at all.

I think the C13s are benign. The belt is too sloppy to eject or mount the disc properly. On a failed insert I've never seen the laser sled actually try to read the disc, I think the electrical and mechanical interlock mechanisms are too mature by this version of the MDM. So I don't believe any mechanical damage or stress will have occurred. I don't hear any mechanical torture going on in that video and I've had much worse (the "machine gun") with some of my machines and the drives have suffered no lasting damage. The machine is pulling the disc back in because it has passed the threshold where the machine thinks the disc is out, then the disc sitting there creates a new insert detect so it pulls it back in. I had the same with pretty much all of those machines (440, 480, E10) I bought with "faulty loading" where it just needed a new belt. I still feel at this point we're looking for a simple explanation - even if that is eluding us for now! Do no damage at this point looking for anything complex. On which note, is that drive properly back together yet even if it's not mounted in the machine? ETA - I have had the same as the video where you can't trigger an eject every time. Actually that was common on my 530 which ended up being oxidised ribbon cables in the end (remember those days Stephen, that's how you hooked me into this Forum! :-D )

At this point I break for a cup of tea in a different room and let the sequence of events mull over in my mind for 10 minutes. Then I go back and have a fresh look.

That's not crazy, that's brilliant and inspired! (In one of the early photos it can be seen in the OFF (centre) position).

OK great Petter, thanks. Myself I would be tempted to rewind here. I'm not sure we need to take this machine apart so much given what we should have performed initially. We shouldn't be looking for a complex fault. We know we had a perfectly working machine prior to the belt change. We did a simple repair action to replace the belt with one of a similar size and thickness. The new belt is not fouling the adjacent rack gear. We reassemble the drive with the spring to the left and the retainer slide engaged at the rear. Both pivot pins at the front are engaged correctly. If disconnected, we reconnect the pair of ribbon cables to the drive end, ensuring the ribbon contacts mate with the socket contacts and they are fully inserted 'square'. We mount the drive to the chassis, ensuring the 4 bushes are the correct way round to set the drive height correct for the loading slot. We have 4 shouldered machine screws to mount the drive. We ensure any flying earth leads connected to the drive are connected to the chassis. We ensure the ribbon cables at the main PCB end are inserted fully and square. We reconnect mains power and press standby. The machine possibly flashes "Initialise" and the drive settles to an idle position. We have a repaired machine. So, which step went wrong for us? Were other actions performed that changed the situation and can help us repair this "remotely"? The pictures are a great help, but I don't at this point see anything amiss with what I see. I don't have this machine myself but I have several (many!) with this (MDM7-series) drive, that I've replaced the belt on (440, 480, E10, E12). My machines all have comparable internal layouts to this one. (Edit to correct Petter's name, sorry!)

Actually at this point I really need to point out you need to be REALLY CAREFUL OF THE LASER OUTPUT. You have so much of the top of the drive off, there may be an interlock to stop the laser coming on. But there might not be and if you fire this thing up and look at the laser you WILL BE BLINDED. You cannot see the laser light, it is invisible, even whilst you have your sight. EXTREME CAUTION!!! No more comments from me until I know you've seen this warning.

I'm not convinced the wide long ribbon cable is the right way around in the green connector on the main motherboard - from the second photo on your post a few back. Looks to me like the blue plastic stiffener is on the side where the spring contacts are. All ribbon cables, make sure the exposed contacts on the cable are on the side the spring contacts are exposed in the female connector on the PCB. I can see on the short cable that it is the correct way round on the main PCB. Check the others are similarly oriented in the socket. It's a bit hard to be sure from the photos.

Wow you have that in a lot of bits... :-O No disc load belt fitted there, I assume you know that! (probably you removed it to go back to the beginning?)

With the deck unplugged, you should be able to rotate that white cog at the rear right of the drive and slowly but surely eject the disc. Possibly a bit machine depended. Can't remember exactly on my MDS-E10 if the display lights, but the audio bargraph doesn't light the bottom pips which it only does when the drive initialises correctly (which of course it can't do if it's not connected!).

Go back and reseat the two ribbon cables. I’ve had that when they weren’t inserted fully at both ends. Hard to do but make sure they are not twisted if it’s a machine that has long ribbon cables. Also ensure the flying chassis lead is connected if it has one. Kevin

Yep. Beautifully captured in this ongoing thread here:

Yes I've always wondered that. You're out there somewhere Mat aren't you! Probably find he's a regular contributor on one of our recent threads!

I'm sure you're right. It's done a lot of work recently - and the past week I've not found this happening. It's not an MDM7, it's a Tascam drive, but based on the Sony chipset. It might be in need of a very tiny amount of lubrication (Molykote EM-30L) as you say.

I'm working from home with the current situation and in the background dubbing a lot of CDs to MD for when we return to the office (I have my MZ-R700 there). I'm having similar issues occasionally happen with my Tascam MD-CD1. Some discs are dropping out at least once per track, some not at all. If I re-record I can get the drop-outs but at a different position. I've tried brand new discs (old stock) discs from Sony, TDK, Maxell etc plus erased/previously recorded of same. The skip position moves. (The CD I'm dubbing from is not scratched/skipping at that point). I've yet to track this down to a definitive reason. I've been using SP and LP2 and SP is the most common but it does happen on occasion on LP2. I thought at one point the Type-R encoder might have a fault - I don't believe LP2 is Type-R - although this might only be with 2x/4x dub? Also I have it with both real-time dub and high speed (2x, 4x dub) - again at one point I thought it was a high speed dub issue. Anyway, all to say, I think I have a similar issue on a totally unrelated machine (although the MD-CD1 is based on the Sony CXD2662 chipset). Interestingly, MZ-R700 I think is of a similar generation (MDLP but not Type-S) - not the "fullsize" CXD2662 but the walkman version thereof... Kevin

Please try a different disc first and a new one if you have one. Also confirm you’re using a new battery or it’s powered from the mains with a wall-wart. If you have a disc already recorded on another machine, confirm that plays back across the whole disc ok. Another idea if this machine has been idle for a long time, is to step backwards and forwards through a full disc to ensure the laser sled can move across the whole disc smoothly and is not sticking. Kevin

530 still sweet as a nut! :-D (was using it yesterday so I’m not making it up!) MD kit still seems, in the main, to be fetching decent prices. Some prices are of course ridiculous, but if you bide your time and pick your machines carefully as you say above, you can get some decent kit for reasonable money.

It is, but it's also rewarding isn't it. Look at the traffic on this site from the past couple of months. On the software side, there have been some exciting new projects and others have their SS installs working. On the hardware side, we've got a bunch of machines working (usually for nothing but a bit of time) and many of us have learned a lot about our machines and others along the way. We've still got some machines "in progress" but I predict we'll get there in the end, even if if means we have to source some replacement parts. The contributions from around the globe have been fantastic - well informed, knowledgeable and exceptionally well presented. And, if I might say, I've not seen any of the bitchiness and one-upmanship that I see on other semi-professional forums. Give yourselves all a big pat on the back. Keep it up people and keep sharing your experience and knowledge! Kevin

Sorry I’m not helping you guys much but this thread is fantastic. Loving the diagrams and annotations being presented. I confess, I’m playing Lego with my 8 year old which is something I do far too infrequently...

You're right (again!). I thought it was slow to start too, but you've clocked that one too and have identified the cause!

Yea, I think we first saw the 980 on the recent titling video. We're also due that video on the dubbing deck he got from Japan (that triggered his "Importing from Japan" video). Was it an MXD-D40 or similar?

Doh! (Blush emoji!). I'll get my coat...

Welcome! I don't see NW-S603 listed on minidisc.org. Can you elaborate on make/style? Comments I just made in this thread might help you get SonicStage up and running on your PC:

Stephen will say the same in a moment, but many users seem to have success with SonicStage on Win10. There are instructions and popular downloads on this site to help with that including SonicStage and drivers that work on Win10. Also several recent topics have covered this. Also take a look at the hit Web Application thread that's currently running. Sorry, I have next to no knowledge on SS/NetMD, but before Stephen comes along and points you in the right direction, it's worth having a read of some of the information referenced above/below. Web Application thread Downloads (drivers etc)

Can you elaborate more on why it doesn't/might not open? i.e. the catch not operating, the door jammed, the case twisted, the door only opening partially etc

I've been watching this thread but so far haven't really had any meaningful contribution to make. Apologies I should have commented at least for the "moral support" to a fellow user. I've watched the video and agree with @jonathanpotato: the OWH and the laser sled are linked and are not returning to the parked position to the left (disc centre) prior to the eject mechanism running; you can see in the video it jam up against the plastic tab on the OWH. Fortunately the Sony engineers set the threshold for the disc insert/eject detection such that the eject doesn't continue forcing past the "jam" point on the sled which could have lead to irrepairable damage. Also well spotted that the OWH is not properly fitted into the carrier frame - I thought it looked a little weird the way it was hanging down but could not see the detail. At this point I can't help more as I don't know why the sled does not return to the parked (disc centre) position prior to eject. However Jonathan seems to be well on the case. I'll keep watching this thread but it seems you are already in good hands! Jonathan is advising temporary removal of that plate which looks like it will allow eject to operate without hitting the OWH/sled assembly. I'm interested in the outcome of this. However given that I understand this machine has worked, something is amiss with the mechanical assembly that is causing this issue. Stephen has probably already suggested looking for broken teeth on the gears and racks. I would add belatedly just to check if the mechanism looks "together" correctly - that sliders etc seem to be located in their correct locations/tracks. That one on the top that Jonathan also refers to looks interesting... Also if you can go into Service Mode I believe the IN/MID/OUT Cont.Play setting should allow you to move the sled manually using the front-panel controls (this is certainly the case for JE520 and above, so I'm making the assumption that the 510 has something similar). Kevin