Joshua Elliott

Background: I used to be a great fan of Sony products especially their support until I decided to upgrade to my NetMD Hi NH1 with the view that I'd been moving around the world a lot and wanted the "world wide" Sony support. Well discovered after my new remote packed up, that Sony (Europe) didn't care one bit because I hadn't brought it in the UK. Problem: The remote started behaving in a strange manner. Some buttons stopped working, other buttons started doing completely different things, since the NH1 requires this remote to perform most of its functionality the NH1 was rendered almost useless. Not sure why but I think it may have been caused by taking the unit out running and me operating the remote with sweaty hands. Now that these remotes have so much functionality and electronics they appear to have become prone to failure where simpler remotes wouldn't suffer. After contacting Sony support and getting this reply "I would like to inform you that Sony does not operate a worldwide guarantee..." and discovering that a new remote costs about 1/5 the cost of the Unit itself! I decided to give fixing it a go myself. The fix: It isn't much of a fix really, and will only work if you have experienced the same problem as I, where you've got dust, dirt, sweat (or may be even water?) into your remote. * Go out to an electronics store and buy a can of spray "contact cleaner", no residue stuff, make sure it has a thin straw like nozzle. * There is a small screw on the under side of the remote, undo this screw. * Use a small sharp knife and prise the corner of the remote open, don't force. * You'll see a plastic latch which you can press in with a small micro screwdriver to let it open a bit further. * This will give you just enough space to fit the contact cleaner nozzle into the remote, spray away. I gave my remote a good dousing. I never bothered trying to open the remote completely, seemed like too much hard work and was worried I was going to break it. * Leave the remote slightly prised open to let the contact cleaner evaporate out. * After it's dry inside, close the unit back up. Once I had done this the remote worked like new. But now when I take the MD on a run I'm careful to use the remote with dry hands. Conclusion: * The NH1 is an excellent unit, great sound, one problem is that it's reliant very heavily on the remote for its functionality. * The RM-MC40ELK is a delicate device, mine stopped working after VERY little use, make sure you don't get it dirty, wet (or in my case sweaty) * The RM-MC40ELK is EXPENSIVE, if it's broke take it to Sony support and only attempt to clean it out yourself when Sony tell you to get lost. * Considering the NH1's cost, remote problems and lack of Sony support I realise that I probably shouldn't have upgraded my old MD to the Sony NH1, I should have gotten a Hard Disk MP3 unit instead.