NH900 records to end of disk and loses everything!

[DATfan]

I have a NH900, recording digitally via the optical mini-plug in Hi-LP on a 80-minute MD. If I record past the end of the MD, everything recorded is lost, it is blank, no TOC written.

I have it set to insert track marks when there are interruptions in the digital audio. The first break would have been at hour 3, then breaks every 30 minutes for the next 6 hours, then straight through to the end of the disc, about 10 hours 10 (?) minutes in total.

Unfortunately, I did not observe when the recording failed, but when I checked on it after 10 hours, the player was off, the disc was blank.

Of course when I started it, manually, it was operating and receiving audio.

In previous cases, I have returned before 10 hours (say, hour 9) and manually stopped recording, and all data up to that point are saved.

Is this a known issue? Any solutions?

TIA

[sharpsony]

Is this a known issue? Any solutions?

TIA

I experienced the same problem with my NH900 - it is obviously caused by a worn-out gumstick battery that breaks down abruptly, leaving no power for TOC writing. Buying a new battery (NH-14WM or compatible) or using the AC Adaptor should help.

[DATfan]

I experienced the same problem with my NH900 - it is obviously caused by a worn-out gumstick battery that breaks down abruptly, leaving no power for TOC writing. Buying a new battery (NH-14WM or compatible) or using the AC Adaptor should help.

Ah, forgot to mention it is on an AC adaptor.

If I can, I will look at what it does today when it reaches the end of the disc.

[DATfan]

Ah, forgot to mention it is on an AC adaptor.

If I can, I will look at what it does today when it reaches the end of the disc.

Missed the exact end, but I came in before, pressed STOP, data saved (GROUP 1), started the recording again (GROUP 2). All my track marks were properly done up to that point.

The next time I checked the player was off, and the GROUP 2 was, in fact, written (1 track, only 7 minutes in GROUP 2).

This is using a different 80 minute disc than in the first posting.

I will try this new disc again to see if it chokes on the TOC tomorrow, if I don't intervene.

[Roamer]

How many tracks marks do you have ? My first guess would be that it can't manage too many of them in memory, and must save them at some point.

[DATfan]

How many tracks marks do you have ? My first guess would be that it can't manage too many of them in memory, and must save them at some point.

14 tracks total.

As I noted yesterday, it had 13 tracks and was about 7 minutes shy of the disc capacity yesterday, and I manually saved it all.

I will see what happens today without any intervention.

Maybe the issue is whether the disc is blank or has already some tracks on it, when it runs out of room.

[DATfan]

UPDATE:

Using a new 80 minute regular MD (Nashua). I forgot to check until after everything was off. So I looked and in fact, everything was written correctly, without any intervention.

Conclusion: the MEMOREX brand 80 minute MDs are defective, as the other brand did not exhibit any problems.

Because I cannot risk losing a whole day of recording, I discarded the remaining MEMOREX brand 80 minute MDs from my disc rotation. I say "remaining" because I have thrown away at least one, and possibly two MEMOREX discs in the past (out of about 10 originally), due to faulty operation. Two or three failures out of ten is not a good sign. I have not had any problems with my five HHB discs of the same age.

I'll see if this problem recurs with any other brand discs.

Edited-- MEMOREX

Edited December 14, 2006 by DATfan

[DATfan]

UPDATE (again).

Yesterday, my NH900 did this with a 80 min Nashua MD. That is, lost all data.

It appears the NH900 (tested using a standard 80 min MD in Hi-LP mode) cannot reliably record, in a single operation, to the complete end of a MD (in this case, just over 10 hours).

The disc in question was blank, but it had been full-erased after a successful prior attempt to write to the end of the disc.

I am now thinking there might be a need to "refresh" the MD by some method other than full-erase.