Strange recording issue.

[Jimma]

I am having trouble with the MD section of my CHC-CL5MD bookshelf system and any advice anyone could give as to the cause of the problem would be greatly appreciated.

The problem is that the MD will now only record successfully if the disc is brand new.  This issue has developed gradually over time.  To begin with, recordings on used discs had occasional dropouts or skips on certain decks but would play perfectly on the CL5MD and a few other machines.  This slowly got worse and worse and now, the CL5MD cannot play back recordings made by itself on used discs and these discs display either blank disc, C14 TOC error or the TOC is read correctly but the disc won't play when put in other units.

Any recordings made on any make of brand new disc on the other hand, play flawlessly on any unit.

This is  quite frustrating as, when it's working this is a great system for copying CDs to MD.

 

Any ideas?

[sfbp]

C14 nearly always means the laser read power is in need of adjustment.

When you record, the disk gets read both before and after the writing. Blanks disks probably read much easier than disks with data on. So it's quite possible to make a decent recording but be unable to finish it because the READ process doesn't work right - you can imagine that to close the TOC, it has to read, write and read again after making the actual music recording.

[Jimma]

The C14 error is being reported by my MDS-JE530 deck when trying to read a disc made on the CL5MD.  The JE530 works perfectly in every respect unless trying to play recordings made on used discs by the CL5MD.

The CL5MD itself reads everything perfectly, apart from it's own recordings made on used discs.

[freddyjollo]

have u ever  use a head cleaner md? might be worth a try before you start fiddling around with adjustments?

[Jimma]

Yes I've tried a head cleaner but it made no difference sadly.

[sfbp]

The C14 error is being reported by my MDS-JE530 deck when trying to read a disc made on the CL5MD.  The JE530 works perfectly in every respect unless trying to play recordings made on used discs by the CL5MD.

The CL5MD itself reads everything perfectly, apart from it's own recordings made on used discs.

You didn't mention that the C14 was on the 530. In which case it's just possible the error is there. However I still think you have to do an adjust of the IOP value on the CL5MD. I think this condition can result from inability to switch from reading to writing and back again quickly enough. If the BD board is properly adjusted it doesn't happen, and the only thing I ever had to do with a drive that had this fault was to fix the IOP value. Not sure why it happened now though. Has your mains voltage changed recently?

Despite all appearances, I think it's the READ not the write power on the CL5MD which is wrong. The read->write->read sequence messes up somehow.

[jonathanpotato]

And cleaning the lens manually ?

[Jimma]

I'm not sure cleaning the lens would make a difference as it has no problems reading discs but I will take a look.  Thanks for all the suggestions.  I am going to try and investigate further over the weekend.  I'll let you know how I get on.