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My JE640 started whistling

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sfbp

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Very weird, my "new" JE-640 (one previous owner, beautiful condition) suddenly started making a high-pitched "whistling" noise when recording. So far I have only tested with SP as I am not anxious to blow it up. I tried several disks, too.

No problem on playback.

Any ideas please?

Thanks

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Very weird, my "new" JE-640 (one previous owner, beautiful condition) suddenly started making a high-pitched "whistling" noise when recording. So far I have only tested with SP as I am not anxious to blow it up. I tried several disks, too.

No problem on playback.

Any ideas please?

Thanks

Is it a noise in the unit, or on the disc (ie can you hear the noise on the disc afterwards?) Could be the record head touching the platter, but I think that would destroy a head on short order. Can you look in the slot and see if something is jammed, or take the cover off and do a recording and see what you can see

Good luck,

Bob

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Is it a noise in the unit, or on the disc (ie can you hear the noise on the disc afterwards?) Could be the record head touching the platter, but I think that would destroy a head on short order. Can you look in the slot and see if something is jammed, or take the cover off and do a recording and see what you can see

Good luck,

Bob

Well I turned it off pretty quick when I heard it. It sounds mechanical, and builds up after a few seconds of recording. Its somewhere at the top of the piano keyboard and a bit wobbly, if that helps. Maybe I should upload a recording of the noise?

I can insert and remove disks fine. I can play disks fine. The short passage that I recorded with the noise going, had no obvious ill-effects in the recorded sound.

I like the idea of spying on it.

Stephen

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Well I turned it off pretty quick when I heard it. It sounds mechanical, and builds up after a few seconds of recording. Its somewhere at the top of the piano keyboard and a bit wobbly, if that helps. Maybe I should upload a recording of the noise?

I can insert and remove disks fine. I can play disks fine. The short passage that I recorded with the noise going, had no obvious ill-effects in the recorded sound.

I like the idea of spying on it.

Stephen

Some more info:

- I put the JE630 in place of it, no problems, so it's not the environment or setup.

- I opened the lid of the 640 (not plugged in to anything except AC power) and recorded silence on the Analog input. As soon as the write head descended, the noise started (on playback there is no noise, and the write head doesn't descend - learn something every day)

- There appear to be two cogs (gears) one of which is attached to the positioning motor, the other of which is much larger and goes to the head transport. It's a gear down arrangement, the little one moves a fraction and the big one moves 10 or 20 times less. These two gears are permanently vibrating at what looks about the right frequency (I was exaggerating, it's not right at the top of the piano, only 2 octaves above Middle C), however they are vibrating when playing back too.

If I had to guess, I'd say the spindle has developed a wobble and the servo manages to keep up with it but at the expense of making this noise.

Stephen

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Sorry for shouting so loud, but none of the regular experts has replied any further. I still have a problem. What i now know is that the machine passes the continuous write diagnostic test with no errors.

But that noise is definitely strange, and I am concerned lest I need to oil or grease something. This is a very nice deck but the first one that did anything like this.

I also noticed that when i turn the AMS button esp when playing LP2, that frequently the track change doesn't take. This almost suggests that the vibration I can see of the head lateral position may after all have some side effects.

I suppose it's just possible that this deck may have been almost unused (the guy didnt have any MD to offer me) and somehow this will go away if I use it enough. I'd really really hate to bust it, especially if there's something that I can try to fix it.

Thanks all

Stephen

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This will sound stupid, but have you tried putting the deck upside down?

Funny you should ask that. I removed the deck from the stereo setup, took it to the other room, where, just as before it whistled (possibly less badly, no way to measure). A couple of days later I put it in place of my 520 next to the computer, thinking "I can at least use this to play back LP2" and eventually got around to testing record. Now, no noise!

Why would turning it upside down have an effect? I may well have done during the course of my endeavours. My current theory (until you happened by with your comment) was along the lines of something crazy about the power in that corner of the house. Seems like I had trouble with several things over there at one time or another.

Stephen

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more than likely it was whistling because it didn't know the words so it could sing!

It's a wiggly world out there, I run into the same thing fixong cars, people describe one thing, but it;s something else when you fix it,

Hope it stays fixed

Bob

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more than likely it was whistling because it didn't know the words so it could sing!

It's a wiggly world out there, I run into the same thing fixong cars, people describe one thing, but it;s something else when you fix it,

Hope it stays fixed

Bob

Thanks

I do recall hearing something rattle when I shook it. Sounded like it wasn't coming from the disk drive itself but from the back corner where the power supply is.

I'm now reluctant to see if the rattle has gone, for obvious reasons! :closedeyes:

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As soon as the write head descended, the noise started (on playback there is no noise, and the write head doesn't descend - learn something every day)

This is why I suggested to turn the unit upside down. If the head was causing the whistling via friction, putting it upside down may separate it from whatever it was grinding against.

Gravity is free, after all.

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