Nh1 Locked Up During Analog Recording

[Justin42]

I hope this is in the right forum; I see a software support forum but no hardware support... please move (or let me know where to repost) if not correct..

I have an MZ-NH1 that I've had for about a month. Today something was coming on the radio I really wanted to record, so I hooked up a line-out to the NH1's line in and recorded it. I was placing track marks occasionally and all seemed to be going well. I had the NH1 in the charging cradle, plugged in (to insure proper power as I wasn't sure how long it had been since I last charged it).

I had it on automatic levels; mainly because I had to start recording before I could properly calibrate the levels, but I figured auto would be "good enough" (it was something I wanted but didn't need to be perfect).

After about 1.5 hours, I walked over and noticed the unit had shut off. I tried to turn it back on using the Record button on the unit; it woke up and said "REC LINE IN" or the like, but after a second spit up with "NO DISC" (despite there being a disc in the unit).

I noticed the unit was acting like it was partially frozen. I took it out of the cradle to get a better look at the display and the charge light stayed lit, and the battery-animation was still moving (the "charging" animation).

I had to take the battery out to get its attention (HOLD was not on). After I put the battery back in, it said "READ ERROR" and back to "NO DISC". So basically I lost the 1.5 hours I had already done.

Can anyone think of any reason this happened? Bad disc? Should it not have been in the cradle?

Should I take it in to Sony for repairs ASAP? (I had an issue earlier in the day that SonicStage crashed on me while trying to load up a disc with a bunch of LP2 format music I encoded on my computer; however, I am using a different disc than that). It seems like I've had a few unexplainable crashes, I'm just wondering if my unit is a tiny bit screwed up.

help!! I'm a bit upset about the loss of the recording and don't want to do it again!

(I should add, once I finally got the unit settled down, it just went back to "NO TRACK" and won't see anything on the disc. I'm trying to fill it up now via the computer to see if everything seems OK with the disc itself)

Edited February 22, 2005 by Justin42

[ROMBUSTERS]

it sounds like the optical pick up might be damaged or dirty, try using a different disc and see if it makes any difference

[Justin42]

Well, this is strange... I had been following that bad HiMD thread so I was wondering if the HiMD disc was bad, or if it was the NH1. (I didn't want to try a different disc yet before I could see if this was repeatable and under what conditions)...

After the problems, I reformatted the disc with the unit, filled it to the brim with data, and verified everything using WinDiff -- everything was fine.

I then reformatted again, and have set it off recording off the radio with a fairly similar setup as what caused the problem (Except no automatic levels; I wouldn't normally use them except today, as I was in a hurry to get recording going).. it's been recording for over 2 hours now with no problems at all.

Strange.. I don't want to chalk it up to a fluke just yet, but it seems weird with the same disc and almost exactly the same setup everything is going fine (at least, so far so good).

I'm in LA, maybe some of the weird weather we're having did something goofy... everything's on surge protectors but maybe voltage dipped for a second with a lightning strike or something...

Edited February 22, 2005 by Justin42

[Classicalgas]

I've had a similar experience with an MD-80 disk on my NH1 - not while recording, but after a usb transfer from SonicStage.

A disk that had been playing normally behaved the same as you describe after I added some more songs to it.

I reformatted the disc, retransferred the songs, and no problem.

I assumed file corruption - maybe the USB cable was not clipped in properly, I thought. Funny thing too - the hold button on the unit (which I use all the time at the gym as I use headphones without the remote) only functioned sporadically until after the NEXT transfer. This could be non-related, however.

Buggy, buggy, buggy behaviour. I suspect there are a set of environmental circumstances that trigger this, perhaps related to the usb port on the unit.

Your NH1 was in the cradle while recording - so the usb connection port was engaged. Not possible your kid/cat/girlfriend knocked the unit? You didn't take it in or out of teh cradle whilst recording?

Edited February 22, 2005 by Classicalgas