aj.simms@xtra.co.nz

Hi. I'd like to confirm the bad news I'm getting from reading this forum. Sorry the post is a bit long but I want to make sure I get all the facts in... History: I have a MZ-N505 that's about 3 years old. Initially I did a lot of direct recording from the optical output of my CD player but haven't recorded anything for over a year. I just bought a new PC so thought I'd try creating some CD->PC->MD discs using the OpenMG Jukebox that came with the player. It's crap. I removed it from the PC and downloaded SonicStage 3.4, which is waaay better. Present: When I try copying anything to the N505, it appears to work - all the right messages appear and track names, etc. are listed. But when I try to play them, it pauses every 5 seconds, and there is no volume. If I eject the disk, when I put it back in I get the BLANK message. I subsequently tried recording direct from the CD player again but that has a similar result. I wondered whether OpenMG may have changed some record option on the player I could reset through the menus, but threads I have read tonight variously describe a damaged ribbon cable, or a failure to a "record/digital block" (or similar). Future: Not being confident with a soldering iron, I suspect a big bill is on the horizon, but I'll read my warranty in the morning - I may have paid to extend it. Question: Is there any way to tell whether it's the ribbon or the block, or something else? I've got a bit of travel coming up, and would like to have some new discs to take on the road with me, without making too big a dent in my holiday budget!