Any way to do LASER head RE-ALIGNMENT?

[Ral-Clan]

Hi, I have an MZ-R700 which ocassionally will report DISC ERROR or BLANKDISC upon inserting a minidisc that is full of music.

Is there any way to do a manual or service mode laser head re-alignment?

This unit is only 3 years old and has been treated well, so I'm a little ticked.

Edited April 19, 2006 by Ral-Clan

[MDX-400]

Hi, I have an MZ-R700 which ocassionally will report DISC ERROR or BLANKDISC upon inserting a minidisc that is full of music.

Is there any way to do a manual or service mode laser head re-alignment?

This unit is only 3 years old and has been treated well, so I'm a little ticked.

Is the disc itself getting blanked by the unit (meaning if you then put it in another unit it is still blank) or is it just that the unit can't read discs?

If it is the former then stop using the unit as it will blank more discs--the OWH is at fault but if you disconnect it you could still use the unit as a player in most cases. If it is the latter it is the pickup that is gone and you've pretty much met the end of the useful life of the unit, unfortunately. Repair will be more costly than replacement with a similar used unit, and nearly as costly as replacing it with a brand new unit like a Hi-MD model.

3 years with moderate to heavy use is fair for an MD unit--if it is your only unit, used for record and playback of everything that would likely be in that category. Though you may have units lasting longer than that, 3 years isn't too bad really.

The calibration procedure can be done in the service mode, yes, but it requires disassembly of the unit to find voltages at certain points on the board so you do have to know what you're doing; but, even doing this, it will not likely get your unit working again. The R700 is a unit that uses more advanced calibration (than older units I mean) so the unit auto-adjusts within a tolerance as the operating environment changes, the laser gets weaker, etc. Doing the calibration routines will likely just end you up with an "NG" message meaning the pickup is too weak/old to operate.

I'm sorry to inform you but you will have to find a replacement for it.

[Ral-Clan]

I'm sorry to inform you but you will have to find a replacement for it.

To answer your first question: it doesn't blank the discs, it only has difficulty reading them when first inserted....i.e. in about 1 in 5 insertions, it takes a long time to spin up and search, and then reports DISC ERR or BLANK DISC.

I was afraid that was the laser that was dying. Frankly, I find 3 years of use a little short for a $300 item. Especially considering it was used perhaps a couple of times a week on average.

One perhaps good thing is that I did buy a spare broken MZ-R700 (bad motor, but good laser block) of Ebay last year for about $20. I wonder if it possible to do a simple swap of parts (I have had the MZ-R700 totally disassembled before and am fairly competent with doing fine soldering/assembly work).

If the laser finally dies, I suppose I don't have anything to lose.

I'm just venting here, but as much as I love minidisc, I'm a little turned off that it's deemed acceptable that these units should only last 3 years, considering their initial cost. I have CD players from the 1980s that are still going strong. I'm sure a solid state recorder would not have this problem....(if one existed at the price point of minidisc).

[MDX-400]

One perhaps good thing is that I did buy a spare broken MZ-R700 (bad motor, but good laser block) of Ebay last year for about $20. I wonder if it possible to do a simple swap of parts (I have had the MZ-R700 totally disassembled before and am fairly competent with doing fine soldering/assembly work).

Yes it is possible to do that, no soldering would be required to swap the pickup assemblies. However, you would have to calibrate the new assembly in your current unit. Actually an easier thing to do would be to swap the spindle motor from your current unit to the bad motor unit (if you're sure it is indeed the motor) and then it should work fine after that. Again no soldering required to change out those parts, just careful hands and caution with ribbon cables/connectors pretty much.

I'm just venting here, but as much as I love minidisc, I'm a little turned off that it's deemed acceptable that these units should only last 3 years, considering their initial cost. I have CD players from the 1980s that are still going strong. I'm sure a solid state recorder would not have this problem....(if one existed at the price point of minidisc).

You paid $300 for the R700? Where are you located? I think the US MSRP was something like $250, and it could be easily purchased for $200 or perhaps a bit less, IIRC...

While I agree you have a point with the note about CD players, you should note that CD players don't record (and even CD-R decks record differently than do MO recorders). Furthermore, MD units are pretty scaled down. Lasers, mechanisms, assemblies and electronics are far smaller than with the majority of CD players. Also I've seen CD players fail within 3 years as well, though yes it is less common than MD units failing after that time period. At the same time, many people have had MD units last longer than 3 years even under pretty good use. Still I'd still say 3 years isn't horrible--not great but nothing shocking for an MD portable.

[Ral-Clan]

Yes it is possible to do that, no soldering would be required to swap the pickup assemblies. However, you would have to calibrate the new assembly in your current unit.

Ugh. Does this involve a multimeter and using internal test points? If so I'm not going to go to that extreme effort...

Actually an easier thing to do would be to swap the spindle motor from your current unit to the bad motor unit (if you're sure it is indeed the motor)

I had thought of that, and it seems much easier. I am not sure which motor is having the problem (there seems to be 3 motors in there). This (bad motor/good laser) MZ-R700 will operate most of the time, but sometimes after inserting a disc (when the head assembly returns to the 'home' position), and ALWAYS when retracting the laser (i.e. moving from last track to previous track) it makes a high pitched, VERY loud and unhealthy sound like a whirring-rubbing noise. It will occassionaly give a DISC ERROR while playing or recording and then stop operating, but this usually only occurs when it is working on the outer tracks of the disc. I did try greasing the rails and checking the worm screw but it didn't help.

So I assume the problem is with one of the motors failing, but am not sure which one.

It might be the spindle motor, but it could also be the motor that retracts/advances the heads.

You paid $300 for the R700? Where are you located? I think the US MSRP was something like $250, and it could be easily purchased for $200 or perhaps a bit less, IIRC...

Yeah, I am in Canada and you know how outrageous MD prices are here. Actually I ordered this one from the States for about $230 US but after all the shipping and customs/duty and US-->CAD exchange it came out to about $300CAD, which was still far cheaper than such a unit could be purchased here (regular non Hi-MD NetMD walkmans are still about $120 CAD here).

The one interesting thing about my main MZ-R700 (the one I complained about above that has a good motor, but problems with the read/write heads), is that it seems to give the BLANK DISC/DISC ERROR upon disc insertion when the unit is held vertically. When I lay it down flat on a table, it works almost totally reliably, and rarely gives such an error (reads the disc's TOC faster too).

For that reason, I am wondering if it is indeed a weak laser problem, or not. I have greased the rails and done a lens cleaning.

Edited April 20, 2006 by Ral-Clan

[MDX-400]

Ugh. Does this involve a multimeter and using internal test points? If so I'm not going to go to that extreme effort...

Yes, it does, lol.

I had thought of that, and it seems much easier. I am not sure which motor is having the problem (there seems to be 3 motors in there). I did try greasing the rails and checking the worm screw but it didn't help.

There's actually two motors, one is the spindle motor and the other is the "sled" motor. The "worm screw" you referred to above is what they call the sled If the sled's gearing and screw are okay then it is probably the sled motor that is at fault. From your description it does indeed sound like the sled motor though, and not the spindle motor (which spins the disc and does nothing else). Sled motor is a little more tricky to replace but with care and patience it shouldn't be too hard, particularly since service manuals are available on the EB, with dissasembly instructions within.

Yeah, I am in Canada and you know how outrageous MD prices are here.

Yeah tell me about it. In fact I've only ever once purchased an MD unit at a Canadian retail store--it was a refurb/open box N707 (with no accessories, just the bare unit) at Future Shop for just $40 CDN! That was when the N707 was perhaps a year old as a model, so it was not at all a bad price (I think it might have been because the guy that worked there lived at a building I was working as a security guard for at the time, lol). Unit was in great physical shape too, except for the door didn't close quite perfect. But hey I wasn't complaining!

For that reason, I am wondering if it is indeed a weak laser problem, or not. I have greased the rails and done a lens cleaning.

Actually what you describe sounds precisely like a failing pickup. Easy way to verify is to use my old "listen trick"... When you insert a disc and start playing it (or just when it tries to read the disc at first) put the unit up to your ear. You will literally hear if the pickup is operating properly by how it spins the disc and how the laser powers up/down and how the sled shuttles. Quick, sure read cycles indicate a properly working pickup. If you hear delayed, lenghty, cycles with shuttling-for-no-reason and quirky sounds you know the pickup is struggling and there's something up. Furthermore if you skip tracks and the output is not always instant when the track changes successively (when the unit is already spun up) same story.

[Ral-Clan]

Actually what you describe sounds precisely like a failing pickup. Easy way to verify is to use my old "listen trick"... When you insert a disc and start playing it (or just when it tries to read the disc at first) put the unit up to your ear. You will literally hear if the pickup is operating properly by how it spins the disc and how the laser powers up/down and how the sled shuttles.

Yeah, actually I've already tried that and I notice that the head seems make some strange noises. The only DISC ERROR/BLANKDISC messages I've ever gotten were on initial disc insertion (TOC reading). *IF* the disc is read properly upon insertion then I never experience any problem during playback disc.

However, when jumping to a new track, or when the disc spins up to read more data, I can hear the laser head giving itself two or three tries to read the audio (a quiet....sssSSSVVVT....sssVVVTTT sound) .

Still, I wonder why holding the unit vertically results in a greater likelihood of DISC ERROR messages. I assume it's because of gravity is making it harder for the laser head to adjust itself to focus properly.

Edited April 21, 2006 by Ral-Clan