Good Head, Bad Head

[punkrockaddict]

I´m done.

Changing a defect and bend Overwritehead from a NH900 (right one) to a good one from a RH910.The previous owner stated he did open it during a hangtime from SoS.The head was down at that time and that idiot tried to eject the disc.That´s why its bend all the way up.

Now the NH900 records again was kinda hard but now iam glad it worked.

[MDietrich]

As I said on my blog to you: I cannot understand why people are treating their devices badly.

Ah crap... I killed my MZ-R 50 too. I´ll shut up now.

[jim.hoggarth]

Definitely seen better days. Incidentally, any attempts I have made in the past to 'straighten' such write heads have always failed dreadfully. I no longer even try - just swap them out. Damned expensive part too.

Jim

[punkrockaddict]

i once bought a used NH600 where the head was missing at all. I had to laugh what was going on before

that expensive? what amount were talking about o.O?

[jim.hoggarth]

i once bought a used NH600 where the head was missing at all. I had to laugh what was going on before

that expensive? what amount were talking about o.O?

That's a very common problem. The Hi-MD units have a tendency to crap out during a panic TOC update due to a failing battery, and leaving the write head in the loaded position. Instead of putting in a fresh battery or mains adapter, and pressing STOP, as described in the manual (or the separate addendum insert), users prise the unit open to get the disc out. Removing the disc and/or inserting another in this state just rips the head off.

And because of this, any units I purchase for spares have around a 50/50 chance of having a damaged write head already. Which means I need to buy two 'spares or repairs' units before getting a good working head. As these can cost over 20 GBP each, I need to fork out a lot of money to get good working parts. True, I may also have a good optical pickup or main board in the bundle, but it is write heads I particularly look for. Consequently, even though I make no profit on parts, I need to charge a minimum of 16 to 20 GBP each time I fit one of these.

Customers don't realise this, though, and often baulk at the cost of parts, perhaps thinking I am making a killing on supplying them. Which I am most definitely not.

Jim

[Jimma]

I think I must have been amazingly flukey but about twelve years or more ago when I knew a lot less about MiniDisc than I do now, the write head on my MDS-JE510 got somehow got so badly bent it was literally folded back on itself. Obviously the deck would not record so I took it apart, saw the bent head (although at that point in time I don't even think I knew that was what it was) and just straightened it out by hand. It was so badly bent it felt like it might snap off as I flexed it back.

By some miracle it worked perfectly and has recorded hundreds of discs since and still records flawlessly to this day.

I bet I couldn't do that again if I tried!

[jim.hoggarth]

Not taking away anything from your obvious sheet-metal working skills, but the write head on the decks is far less critical than the portables (and there is the write power to consider too - the decks pump out a hell of a lot more juice). And with the Hi-MD units, the head alignment is so critical as to make it almost an art swapping one out and another in. I recall that when Sony still supplied parts for these, you were forced to buy the optical pickup and write head as one pre-aligned item. Getting the write head wrongly set-up can cause *lots* of problems when it comes to aligning Hi-MD units, especially on the MD3 (ie 3-layer) 1GB discs.

Jim