brook392 Posted July 13, 2012 Report Share Posted July 13, 2012 Hey, I've bought MDS-JE510 deck on Ebay, hooked up the system to cd player and amplifier etc.., everything seems fine, except that, the minidisc doesn't play inserted discs. I've tried to copy CD from my cd playe to MD, and it looked like the disc was recorded, it showed all tracks no.., names etc.. when i pressed the play button, the was no sound whatsoever. I pressed STOP, ejected disc, put back in..and the message was 'blank disc', I've tried couple of discs already and the result is the same 'blank disc'. If i don't pull out the disc from player just after recording and only press simply play, the player starts playing without any sound and seems like........finalizing tracks? it takes forever....... I'm completely lost. I've tried already recorded MD (recorded by SonicStage on pc) the player shows all tracks but doesn't play any of it I know that many of You guys have more expierence with recording on MD decks, If someone could give me any hint how to fix that I would be really thankfull. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sfbp Posted July 13, 2012 Report Share Posted July 13, 2012 Jim Hoggarth can give you a step by step diagnosis to walk through. But it sounds at first sight, if you cannot play ANYTHING, that you have a problem with the laser head. The real question is: do you have a disk (just one) that you know has some music on it? If you can play that but not record anything, then you have a busted overwrite head. The behaviour you are seeing is utterly consistent with the overwrite head being bad, anyway. You'll never write anything on the disk. All you have done is to store (in the machine's memory) a bunch of track marks at times x,y,z.... and so on. One thing - most SonicStage disks will be LP2 recordings. This will never produce sound on the (SP-only) JE510. So unless you can make an SP disk with SS on your portable, the fact that you hear no sound with previously made disks proves nothing. If you can't play anything at all, the situation may be more basic yet, like no power to the Read-Write electronics. Jim should be able to help distinguishing this from the other case I mentioned. Whatever..... time to throw it back at the vendor. I wouldn't spend huge efforts repairing the JE510, they are one of the more unreliable models from everything we read here. The 520, or 530, or 630 or 640 would be much better choices. Sorry it's not good news. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brook392 Posted July 13, 2012 Author Report Share Posted July 13, 2012 Thank You so much for the info, maybe i'll buy minidisc head cleaner, and try to clean it, The thing is, it looks like the deck is recording the disc,because it sees all recorded tracks, but just dont play it back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluecrab Posted July 13, 2012 Report Share Posted July 13, 2012 When you were recording from CD > MD, did you let the CD finish copying or did you press Stop before it completed? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jim.hoggarth Posted July 13, 2012 Report Share Posted July 13, 2012 Thank You so much for the info, maybe i'll buy minidisc head cleaner, and try to clean it, The thing is, it looks like the deck is recording the disc,because it sees all recorded tracks, but just dont play it back. You are probably throwing good money after bad. If the head was dirty, I would expect some data to be written and playback to be intermittent. But it looks like there is no write signal to the head, or more likely the head is absent. A common problem with the disc drives in the JE510 is the head being ripped off, or just mangled, by an incorrectly loaded disc. Or in some cases the drive is stripped down to attempt a repair or modification (such as are found on the web), and the head is damaged on rebuilding. You could try taking the top off and photographing the drive unit from above. Post it here and I can quickly tell you if the write head is damaged. But I would put a claim in straight away with eBay as it is not as stated - assuming it was not sold as 'for spares or not working', of course. Jim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
THIS SUCKS Posted July 13, 2012 Report Share Posted July 13, 2012 use sonic stage and your potrable to make an "sp" disc. its a setting in the tranfer options. it shold play on your 510. i think you made a lp2 disk. you know you got it right if it says sp on the portable. play it from that unit first. i think the decks recording function is proken but i bet the playback is fine if it comes up with the track numbers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sfbp Posted July 13, 2012 Report Share Posted July 13, 2012 use sonic stage and your potrable to make an "sp" disc. its a setting in the tranfer options. it shold play on your 510. i think you made a lp2 disk. you know you got it right if it says sp on the portable. play it from that unit first. i think the decks recording function is proken but i bet the playback is fine if it comes up with the track numbers 'snot even that complicated... just make a line or mic recording with portable (assuming that is possible) of a few seconds of "something" (eg your room noise). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brook392 Posted July 13, 2012 Author Report Share Posted July 13, 2012 Thnx so much for all info from all of you, actually today I've found a recorded minidisc, (which came with the player). I've inserted the disc to MD and the player start playing with no problems. Everything was ok, but Then I decided to add another track, just to try if I can record extra one, I've started recording the track, after that I pressed STOP button, and the player showed extra track on the display. I pressed PLAY, and completely silence.., the all previous tracks I could still play with any problem only the one I supposedly recorded, didn't play. So I ejected the disc , put it in back and display says BLANK DISC. I've conected MD to CD using only 1 optical cable(cd out to md in),and regular RCA audio cables, maybe that's a problem? I'm really pissed because MD erased all previous tracks which were played with no problem. It looks like there is a signal though while recording process. Every time I finish recording and press STOPN display shows all 'recorded tracks' I can edit them, name it etc.. But if I pull out disc and insert again, always a message BLANK DISC.thnx for help Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brook392 Posted July 13, 2012 Author Report Share Posted July 13, 2012 Re:blecrab I had to press StOP button after finish recording cd>md because md was still recording, even that cd player stopped. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sfbp Posted July 13, 2012 Report Share Posted July 13, 2012 Thnx so much for all info from all of you, actually today I've found a recorded minidisc, (which came with the player). I've inserted the disc to MD and the player start playing with no problems. Everything was ok, but Then I decided to add another track, just to try if I can record extra one, I've started recording the track, after that I pressed STOP button, and the player showed extra track on the display. I pressed PLAY, and completely silence.., the all previous tracks I could still play with any problem only the one I supposedly recorded, didn't play. So I ejected the disc , put it in back and display says BLANK DISC. I've conected MD to CD using only 1 optical cable(cd out to md in),and regular RCA audio cables, maybe that's a problem? I'm really pissed because MD erased all previous tracks which were played with no problem. It looks like there is a signal though while recording process. Every time I finish recording and press STOPN display shows all 'recorded tracks' I can edit them, name it etc.. But if I pull out disc and insert again, always a message BLANK DISC.thnx for help Dead overwrite head. Commonest problem on ALL minidisc decks/portables. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluecrab Posted July 13, 2012 Report Share Posted July 13, 2012 OK. I asked because I have a deck (not a JE510) that gave me some Blank Disc errors when I stopped it while it was recording. However, it did not continue to record past end of source. I used to have the JE510 myself, but it died due to the infamous self-turn-on and associated problems. I think Jim's advice is sound. Unless the unit was specified as "For parts, not working," send it back. It's a pain, true, but in the long run you may be better off. There's a decent chance that even if you fix it, it will eventually fail. There's a reason that so many of these are on Ebay. Then again, if you're adept in repairing such a unit, you have little to lose by following up on some of the suggestions noted here by others. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brook392 Posted July 17, 2012 Author Report Share Posted July 17, 2012 hey, i have pics of my writing head, does it help? how can i upload them? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brook392 Posted July 17, 2012 Author Report Share Posted July 17, 2012 the pictures of the head Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sfbp Posted July 17, 2012 Report Share Posted July 17, 2012 Not likely. You should be returning this item to the vendor. Apart from Jim in England, we don't know of a US repairer that would make cost effective repairs. Sony will do nothing. There are many much better decks. If you can't return it, write it off to experience and buy something else. The 510 will probably be quite useful for parts, in time. Things like knobs, transformers, ribbon cables etc. Just saw your pictures. The part that's busted is the other side of the head, the part that comes from the top of the MD. Unless, as Jim says, it is bent over or snapped off completely, you won't be able to see the spot where the ribbon cable cracked (most likely happening to cause your symptoms). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brook392 Posted July 17, 2012 Author Report Share Posted July 17, 2012 Thnx, I've just ask at repair service, how much it would cost to repair, they've said 75 dol plus cost of the parts, they don't repair decks older than 8yrs, mine was made in 1998 so is a junk, I will sell it for parts. Thnx for help anyway Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karolbrooklyn Posted September 19, 2012 Report Share Posted September 19, 2012 Hey, I'm back ;-) I've got another 'not working' MD-JE510 (look like its the worst model from Sony), this time I've got it from a friend. The player has a problem with auto-loading discs, other functions seem to work, I'm just wondering, it it easier to fix the auto-loading mechanism or just dissemble the whole thing, take out a working overhead and put in in my old MD, where everything works fine except the overhead. I was looking online for a auto-loading scheme but cant find anything. Replacing the overhead look pretty complicated to me. what do u think? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonathanpotato Posted September 23, 2012 Report Share Posted September 23, 2012 Hey, I'm back ;-) I've got another 'not working' MD-JE510 (look like its the worst model from Sony), this time I've got it from a friend. The player has a problem with auto-loading discs, other functions seem to work, I'm just wondering, it it easier to fix the auto-loading mechanism or just dissemble the whole thing, take out a working overhead and put in in my old MD, where everything works fine except the overhead. I was looking online for a auto-loading scheme but cant find anything. Replacing the overhead look pretty complicated to me. what do u think? The MDS-JE510 has MDM-3A/3B mecha (shared by MDS-S37/38/39, etc...) , Yes it's a bad "full metal" mechanism ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karolbrooklyn Posted September 24, 2012 Report Share Posted September 24, 2012 Hey, i've replaced over write head, but i got another problem, when i put the disc into player i get a message 'TOC Reading" after that the disc is ejected with a message "disc error'. I've tried many discs and I've got same message. I think i connected all ribons cable correct. what do You think can cause that? maybe over write head is not connected? i thought i did it right. when i had broken overwrite head before, i could play at least recorded tracks, and now i dont have even message 'blank disc'. I've tried to check your link with PDF (toutorial how to replace over write head ) but Your web is in french. thnx for help Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonathanpotato Posted September 24, 2012 Report Share Posted September 24, 2012 when i put the disc into player i get a message 'TOC Reading" after that the disc is ejected with a message "disc error'. I've tried many discs and I've got same message. Discs can't be read. What do You think can cause that? Bad optical pickup unit, not well connected OPU ribbon cable, dirt on lens. Maybe an ESD damage too. maybe over write head is not connected? Whatever, the OWH is not needed to read the disc. Installed or not, connected or not. I think i connected all ribons cable correct. Unplug them and replug them. I've tried to check your link with PDF (toutorial how to replace over write head ) but Your web is in french. thnx for help Google traduction may help ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sfbp Posted September 24, 2012 Report Share Posted September 24, 2012 One of the problems with the JE510 is that it lacks automatic error analysis that even the lowly 520 has, which was the next comparable model produced. Reading an MD is, like for CD, a servo system, so the voltages and so on have to be within very tight constraints (writing is about 10 times the power, so is not really so critical). Unfortunately the 510 does not have the LCD showing up with a TOC error (C13 on the later models) and instead tends to immediately eject the disc. This is not conducive to diagnosis. I cannot duplicate because my 510 died a number of years ago. It's the only model I had which failed in this way. You are going to have to learn the servicing procedures the hard way. Sorry. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karolbrooklyn Posted October 5, 2012 Report Share Posted October 5, 2012 Hey, thank You all for all info, it looks like I've fixed that ;_) thnx to yours advice, I've switched cable ribbons and deck records and play! The only thing, what worries me is.I've recorded few discs already and the only problem I have is always with the first record, only when the deck is in no use for a while, the first try of recording sometimes fails. The disc I recorded of course, but skipping.then I play another disc and after a few minutes the deck works great. It looks like it needs warm up. Maybe its problem with laser power?. Besides that it works fine. Anyway I wouldn't recommend MD_JE510, the only option is SP mode? Its a joke, in this case u can actually record 1 cd to 1 md 1 , not much space left Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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