MZM200 Intermittent Power Problem

[MattJake]

My MZ-M200 Mini Disk player seems to randomly lose power. Most often this seems to occur during recording and of course the system file is not written and I lose everything recorded up to that point.

The loss of power seems to mostly occur when I am changing the position of the hold switch on the bottom. This loss of power seems to be more related to shock or pressure (maybe moving the top lid which supports the rails that hold the disc?) than the hold switch slide action.

I initially thought it might be the gum stick battery slipping because the battery slot door does not tightly lock in place. Taping the door in place and cleaning the battery contacts didn't solve the problem.

The top lid also does not seem to seat fully (it protrudes slightly above the front display panel and I can press it down lower). Sometimes after I turn the recording back on I get a disc write protected error message. This seems to imply a disc misalignment issue or a faulty record lock-out slide position sensor switch????

Another problem is that the right channel always appears to record a few db higher on the meter than the left channel. This seems to be fairly recent and may be a mic problem more than a mini disc problem.

Sony service could not tell me how much it would cost for repair (replace with a refurbished unit) but guessed it would be about as expensive as the original purchase price. For a 2 year old unit this seems way out of line.

Thanks in advance for any help.

[sfbp]

Try seeing if the screws (2) on the bottom are loose. This seems to give rise to a whole bunch of strange problems and affects how the door closes, for starters (one of your mentioned symptoms).

Be careful, you can get them too tight as well as too loose.

It might also be an idea to clean and/or abrade the terminals of the battery a little. Say with the point of a sharp knife, pin, screwdriver or equivalent. But it sounds like a closing-thing to me. Been there, done that.