Problems with NH1 turning off during recording

[not worth asking]

I've had my NH1 for a little over a year, conveniently just outside warranty period, and have just this week ran into a big problem.

The power to the unit, when charged and running on battery just randomly turns off, losing all data edited/recorded before the last system file write.

This i think could have happened once before, back when i first got the unit i tried mass recording a heap of CD's using my 200 cd player through optical on Hi-SP or LP, forget which, and it would record fine right up until the disc was full, but then as soon as the disc was full it would not save any of the recording, i would come home and the disc was blank. I tried the same thing on a different blank and that fixed the problem i think, can't remember exatly as it was so long ago......

Then 3 days ago it happened again after I was trackmarking a show i had recorded a few hours earlier on tuesday night, after the 12th or so track the unit just switched off, no warning, nothing, just dead, and all i had to do was press play to turn it on again, no need to change/reset anything. The first time it happened i was pissed off as i lost about 10 mins of precise trackmarking, but dismissed it as a once off. It happened 3 more times in the next hour on my walk home, which caused my only solution being to save every trackmark each time, eating away battery power and time consuming.

The next night i'm recording a show, and after 30 mins or so of normal Hi-SP mic recording, i can't tell exactly as i was busy watching the show, but i looked down at the remote and the unit was off. Turned it back on and it hadn't saved any of the recording. So i started again, got the rest of the show. Recorded another show later that night on a different disc which was over an hour long with no problems, so i thought maybe it was just the disc. But then last night recording another show, same thing, after 40 mins or so i looked down and the unit had turned off, another recording down the drain.

The only factors i could think of i've already tested for, i tried a different disc, took the unit out of my pocket in case it was heat related, still had problems, kept virtually still so as not to shock the unit and it still happened....anyone got any ideas? This is pretty much the last straw for me with Md and sony in general, as soon as i can afford it i'm getting a microtrack.

-Bundled sonic stage software is crashy and would drm mic recordings, and randomly trash others, and trash the original on the disc

-oma files are not multi PC compatible

-Upgraded sonic stage is not installable through certain firewalls

-the fact that others have had to create their own Hi-md renderers and stand alone installers of ss show a lack of customer service from sony to their customers

-some mic recordings i've done have had a few seconds of slience speckled randomly through them, maybe one silent patch per 10 recordings or so. most of these silent patches when attempted to upload to SS are said to be corrupted, and then the track that was once playable is now not even playable to get an analogue copy made to salvage the track.

-and to top it all off they have killed the aussie market. great.

I'm so sick of all this shit, i knew sony was unreliable and bad but this is way too much.

[operafan]

Hi. I've just experienced the same problem with my Sony MD-NH1. I've had my recorder for a few months now, and never had any recording problems till today. I was recording a live event, which lasted about 1.5 hours, but when I checked my recorder afterwards, it only recorded about 30 minutes of the event.

I had a Panasonic minidisc recorder a year ago, which I had for about 2 years or so, and I remember it failing while recording in a similar fashion-- basically, it just stopped recording after 3 minutes at a time.

Is there something I'm doing wrong, or is this a pure hardware problem?

Thanks for the help.

[operafan]

Just tested my NH1 on a brandnew empty minidisc.

After 50 minutes of recording off the microphone (on track 11, 5 minutes each track), it stopped recording, and started writing on disc.

The writing operation took maybe 1 minute or so, longer than it normally takes when I stop the recording myself.

Then, the unit says "REC ERROR", and it seems that the last track wasn't recorded at all, leaving me with only 10 tracks.

Do you think there's such a thing as defective minidiscs, or is this a problem with hardware? The minidiscs I'm using are Memorex 80 minute minidiscs.

THANKS!!

[veezhun]

are your batteries charged fully before you record? the nh1 has no additonal battery pack...

also, recording in HI MD mode requires a lot of power.. so it could be a battery issue.. the nh1 from various reviews everywhere seems to be an excellent recorder..

[KrazyIvan]

I agree with veezhun. My R900 started doing this and it turned out to be the tired and worn original Ni-MH. I replaced it with a new battery (fully charged) and have not had the problem since.

[Justin42]

I've had this same problem-- multiple times-- with my NH1. Even plugged into AC power, it just seems to randomly decide it doesn't like whatever I am recording and shuts down. I bought my NH1 mid-January 2005. I first noticed it in Mid-February 2005, so it shouldn't have been a bad battery. I've only really used it this way with HiMD discs, but it will do it even on a brand new disc.

I can't easily reproduce it, when I try to test to figure out a pattern it'll record 5 hours or more just fine before I have to give up... but when I NEED it, it can die in like 15-20 minutes. It is really annoying.

I misread the warranty when I first got it and thought it was a full year parts and labour. I'll probably just send it back with the $70 repair fee (I have a 4 year BB extended warranty, which will be useless in a way since they no longer carry HiMD [i got mine through Customer Fulfillment on the website] so getting my money back means there's nothing new to buy)...

Edited October 9, 2005 by Justin42

[MZ-NH1]

Oh my gosh!!! I am gettign exactally the same problem!!

I noticed it about 3 weeks ago, but thought it would go away..

I have been studying real hard for the last 3 weeks, and have had my MD plugged into my stereo unit, playing continuously for about 5-8 hrs a day..

Sometimes I am studying.. and then the music just stops :| other times i leave my room for a break, come back 30 mins later and the MD is off hence I can hear no music!

I have never had the MD Turn off on my during recordings... but the longest recording I have ever done was about 2 hrs...

As some say, it turns off after 5 hrs... which would be what it is doing in my case!

Maybe the unit is overheating?

But it is bloody annoying!!!

Oh, and the battery is fine. When the battery is running flat, and about to auto turn off the unit, it beeps a high pitched beep about 6-8 times... this never happens. It just turns off itself.

Edit* GUESS WHAT!!!! It has just turned itself off after exactally 2 hrs!!!!

[operafan]

I believe that, in my case, it's NOT a battery issue. I've been monitoring the battery level throughout my trial recording run, at it had nearly-full battery level for the entire time it was recording, as well as after it decided to stop recording.

Also, I bought my unit early this year, and haven't used it much except when recording at live events and then listening to them occasionally ... as far as I know, my unit is probably the *least* used unit in this forum. So it really can't be a power issue.

Anyway, I'm really bummed ... tomorrow I'll try using a new blank minidisc from a different brand-- it may be that the batch of minidiscs I just purchased (Memorex) is defective, so changing brands might do the trick.

I'll let the forum know the results of my experiment.

[MZ-NH1]

Anyway, I'm really bummed ... tomorrow I'll try using a new blank minidisc from a different brand-- it may be that the batch of minidiscs I just purchased (Memorex) is defective, so changing brands might do the trick.

I'll let the forum know the results of my experiment.

Mate I seriously doubt it is the disk that you are using unfortunatley!

[greenmachine]

A built-in 'it's time to upgrade' indicator / self destruction timer?

[Justin42]

You know, I never reported this to Sony because it was so random, and I had never read of any similar stories, I thought it was a fluke. But it's obviously not, so what is the best way for a group of us to contact Sony to make sure they realise this isn't just happening to 1 or 2 people??

[not worth asking]

You know, I never reported this to Sony because it was so random, and I had never read of any similar stories, I thought it was a fluke. But it's obviously not, so what is the best way for a group of us to contact Sony to make sure they realise this isn't just happening to 1 or 2 people??

Well i guess it's nice to know i'm not alone, but i feel bad that others are having problems too.

A few more details about my units history:

NOT a battery issue, after one attempted 1hr HI-SP recording died (somewhere around the 30-40min mark i think), later that night without charging i successfully recorded a 1hr HI-SP show.

At the moment my unit is stuffing up in this fashion every second attempted recording, on average. 3 out of my last 7 recordings have been totally lost, normally around the 30-40min mark.

I have only been using the original sony 1GB hi-md blanks, bought randomly off different jb hi-fi's between a year and 6 months ago. I thought it could have something to do with the input type, but then realised it happened first while track marking and no other device other than the remote was plugged in.

When my unit dies, it saves nothing. It's as if there's been a power failure, power reset, it doesn't even attempt a system file write, and therefore when you power up the unit again all changes are lost, it reverts to the old data. Which in my case has been either un-trackmarked audio, or no audio at all, depending on if i was track marking or recording.

And while we are on the topic of NH-1 problems, i've also had numerous discs of audio get corrupted, and become unrecoverable, after only editing the audio, performing combinations of trackmarking, moving tracks/groups, deleting tracks/groups, combining tracks, etc. But of course it never saves any changes until you press stop, and sometimes even before i do a system file write, after any random edit it says something like:

cannot record or play, press enter to format

and then it's stuffed. tried ejecting the disc before it had a chance to system file write, but once you load the disc again you get the same message, until you format, and loose everything.

[ynos]

Edit* GUESS WHAT!!!! It has just turned itself off after exactally 2 hrs!!!!

What about recording in power adapter is it also stop?

[sebastianbf]

Few years ago I had the same problem with my MzR70. It was the recorder opening by itself (a little), so i just adjust the screws on the body. Hope this help someone

[MZ-NH1]

What about recording in power adapter is it also stop?

I never record with it in the cradle, plugged into the AC Adapter, is that is what you are asking so I wouldn't know if it turns off.

It has never turned off before for me whilst recording... normally 2-3hr shows...

So I don't know what is wrong with it!

And it also seems... I play all my sons in "Shuffle" mode, so it plays like track2,10,1,20... all randomised... but it seems when it plays the last numbered track in the folder... it also turns itself off then :| As it to say that is has played all songs... good bye! :|

[streaml1ne]

The only time I've ever had a recording stop on me was on a bad disc. Eventually the player just gave up on writing anything to disc. Don't think anyone mentioned this yet, but if you format the "bad" disc and try recording PCM for 90 minutes does it stop again at some point or record all the way through?

[not worth asking]

I have since not had too many problems, i think it was bad discs, but a few, and i just happened to change from one bad to another bad one thus ignoring the bad disc factor. But just the other day i was track marking on one of the bad discs again and it turned off...loosing all changes.

i format all my discs after i have transferred them, but now i don't want to take chances. I'm going to throw out (or maybe sell) any disc that ever gives me a problem, never use it again just in case. Sure it's a pain when it seems to happen a lot, but when the discs are only $5 i guess it's worth it.

[hwbeirut]

I've had my NH1 for a little over a year, conveniently just outside warranty period, and have just this week ran into a big problem.

The power to the unit, when charged and running on battery just randomly turns off, losing all data edited/recorded before the last system file write.

Almost certainly a battery problem. Every time this happened to me (on an NHF 800, used to record 4 NPR-styled radio shows), a battery change addressed the problem (for a while). Additional evidence: the problem increases dramatically when using mikes that recquire phantom power (plug-in-power in sonyspeak). And I wouldn't bet a nickel on this battery meter - one sec it tells u a battery is full, the next it is flat. The truth is probably that recording in Hi-MD pushes the machine dangerously close to a power shortage, so anything that compromises this precarious power balance has disastrous results. A sticker on the US models actually tells you to ALWAYS use the AC adapter when recording in Hi-MD. Now, for those situations where this is not possible: use REAL batteries, not rechargeables, and certainly NOT the rechargables supplied by Sony. Duracells are fine, and they now also have rechargeables (if u insist) with a capacity of 2300 mA which gets close to really good batteries. Else than that: save, save and save again. take it from somebody who makes a living out of it: NEVER record more than 15 minutes without saving (i.e. stopping) if u can help it. makes upload easier also, and reduces risk of loss on all fronts. cumbersome? well, it's a sony after all.

cheers

hwbeirut