misran

Hi! You have big chance to have a semi-broken ribbon cable. You might prevent it from breaking by locating the problem and strenghtening the ribbon. Maybe... I hope you won't get a broken ribbon. Btw, I'm still not ready with the repair and I won't play with it for another several months for sure...

Nice unit, hopefully it doesn't have the (or similar) design failure of MZ-N1 with the cracking recorder head-cable. I would take a look on the inner side before buying... I would blame myself neverending if I would fall in the same pit as with my Mz-N1 unit. A 50 cent cable cracks and Sony will repair it for half of the prize of a new unit. If guarantie lasts for 8 years, then what the heck... if not, think twice, look at the MZ-N1 topics and the inner design of this new unit! Nice gadget dough... Cheers, misran ps. free up/down -load for everyone!

Yep, Hi-MD is quite pretty, but flash-based stuff will kill this line though. Think twice before buy. You might get already obsolete stuff. My MD is still in the "I will repair it some day" drawer... Cheers, misran

Hi! Did you check the cable with an instrument or just by eye? If it's really not broken, then I have no further idea, there are many places where the problem could be found. If its broken though, you may patch it. I did a lot of work with mine, and still not working, I have to experiment with the patch cables, the arrangement of the cables, but I have no time for that now. Really silly thing that Sony doesn't support it's users with a .50 dollar replacement cable... I won't miss blaming this company if someone asks me about MD related things. I'm still upset, Sony. Think about it! Greetz, and Buuuuhhhhh!!! Halloween misran

Hi All! Nowadays I'm working around my MZ-N1 write head ribbon crack problem. Altough the patch looks to be okay and Line-in record does work, I'm a bit confused with the usb recordings. I uninstalled-reinstalled SonicStage and OpenMG drivers, but the case is the same: With usb check-out, no transferr is made, better said, it takes no time, after 0% the 95% comes in a sec, and TOC Edit happens. The songs appear on the disk, but with 0 or 1 maybe 2 sec lengths. The title are okay. I disassembled my unit (MZ-N1) and looked the heads movements while a check-out. I didn't see any mechanical problem during check-out, no stuck, no nothing (as I expected, because Line-in works okay). At this point, I see two possible reasons: 1., some circuit responsible for usb communication is dead on the units mainboard. I hope this is not the case, or this is cheap to service (I don't really believe this latter). 2., My cradle is out. I hope this is the (cheap?) case. And for this latter, I have a question: Does anyone have some information about the circuit of the cradle? Any service manual for that? Any description for the outputs? Any comments and help is welcome! Thanks in advance! Regards, misran

Hi! Unfortunately the recording head problem could raise its head also with the MZ-N10. The inner design is almost the same. The same failure... I don't know the inner design of the NH1, but I fear they are similar. Think twice before getting that stuff. Sony made a colossal mistake with its customer care politics. They did a bad design (and still they follow to build new units with the same failure) and they leave their customers in trouble. The ribbon cable crack is very often by the N1 units. The N10 units recording head-design is almost the same as of the N1. ==> this will crack often as well. Sony services change only the whole optics, which costs almost the same as a new unit. The ribbon cable alone costs about 1 dollar. Maybe 2... They dont change it separately. My N1 units recording capability "died" after 2 years of use. The unit costed a huge amount of money... Now, I'm alone with my half-dead unit (actually, not alone, tons of sad sony users have the same problem...). See details in NetMD-topics: http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=4712 http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=11427 http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=12038 I loved my N1 very much, I think HiMD is also sympathetic and I shed tears to leave the "brand" sony, but never ever. In my opinion they just don't care their customers. If Sony would give 5 years of guaranty, and a whole bunch of apologize for cheating me, I would maybe try the new HiMD portables... But I think I chase a dream... LOL Regards!

Okay, so if you want to use it for recording, then think twice again if it is worth to risk. Even the ability of recording is in danger with this unit... Regards, misran

Yo! Some more pix are done by me if anyone is interested. My results are not a full success. I could repatch thebroken wire but recording through usb is not working still. Line in seems to be okay. So the pics are: http://vision.vein.hu/misran/MD_tores/ Good luck in repairing, and be carefull! See the very good description for the pictures done by pureangst. I've done my repair according to this guide and according to the pix linked by yakman. This is a sticky stuff above all topics: http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=4712 Cheers!

Hi! I'm really sorry to say this: don't do it! MZ-N1 units (and maybe other as well) have a serious design error. The cable (printed thin stuff) going to the writing head is bending during play as well and cracks very often. This cable will not be changed separatly by sony services, only with the whole optics. That costs a lot, probably more than the second-hand price of such an unit. This is really sad, Sony should shame itself for that failure, or rather, for not giving a solution for that. Many of us has bought that "top brand" unit for a lots of bucks... So, don't even think about buying this. Only if you get it for near free. Than if it works for 2 weeks, it will be rewarding still... Buy an mp3 player, with no moving parts. Thats a half-guaranty for being massive. Btw., I read some initations to collect ourselves together with this same problem and write to Sony. It's too late maybe, this model is obsolete, but maybe it would be worth still. Any opinions? Cheers! A sony user...

Hi! I had the same problem (as many of us). Probably you have it also: the tiny wire-pair the runs to the recording head is broken. Sony services change only the whole head for too much money. You can repair it yourselfs (I've done it also, see the instructions of the sticky BLANKDISC topic). Unfortunately I have some strange issues since then: Line-in recording works great (so I could patch the broken wire), but at USB recording, only the songs names are written to the disc (TOC Edit). The songs are with 0 sec and 1 sec lengths. It seems that the physical transfer is skipped at usb recordings. I tried OpenMG Jukebox and Sonicstage as well. Does anyone have some ideas about that. I guess some usb-related chip is out on the board. But it might be also some software issue. Does anyone have experience in relation with that? Thanks! Regards!

Hi Pureangst and All! Thank you very much for the comprehensive description of a wire-repair! I had this damn BLANKDISC problem for quite long and no-one could make me the repair, except sony-services. They wanted of course to change the whole head for lot of bucks... Despite the fact, I have no big experience in soldering that little electronic stuff, I decided to make the repair myself. The operation was a success for the first sight. (If anyone is interested, I could post an url with the photos.) My BIG problem is the following: After repairing the MD, I am able to record via the line-in (sp, lp2, lp4), but at usb transfer the following happens: The song appears on the disc, but only with 0 or 1 sec length. The transfer process is also very fast, it seems that no transfer is made, only TOC Edit writes the songs title on the disc. Does anyone have an idea? I tried to write with OpenMG JukeBox and SonicStage also. Same result. Is it an issue of the patching (wire too infelxibel, too much impedance, too far from the disc) or is this probably another defective (probably expensive) part? So I patched my "BLANKDISC" error and found a "NO USB TRANSFER" error. Thank you very much in advance and again for the good description! Regards!