TOC Writing locks up machine

[mindsetcentral]

I have a MDS-JB940 minidisc deck.  Having an issue wilt TOC writing.
issue is:

1.  when I complete recording a disc and eject, TOC writing will occasionally lock up the machine.  Only option is to unplug it, which ejects the disc and is then blank.

2.  whenever I completely erase a disc and eject it, TOC writing will always lock up the machine.  Only option is to unplug it, which then ejects the disc,  and has not been erased.

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated.  Other than this TOC issue, the machine works fine...

Thanks,

Gareth

[NGY]

May I ask a few questions:

- when recording, do you see the seconds ticking? Does recording a track/disc take the same amount of time as the total time of that track/disc (i.e., when you record from a CD)?

- if you take a non-blank disc, and change only one character in the title of the disc or a track, do you experience the same TOC error?

- when you see the machine is locked up, do you still hear the disc spinning?

- what happens if you leave the deck in TOC writing for more than a minute or so?

- can you open the lid and observe, what the deck is actually doing while it displays "TOC writing"?

If playback works fine, then chances are something is wrong with recording/writing. To figure out whether it is the magnetic head, the laser, or else, some more information is needed on the actual behaviour. Usual first suspect is the magnetic head, second is the laser.

[mindsetcentral]

Thanks for you response!  

To answer your questions:

1.  When recording, Yes I do see seconds ticking, and yes it does take the same time as the track/disc.  Recording works normally, its just the TOC writing that causes the issue.

2.  Yes taking a blank disc and changing only one character causes the same issue.

3.  Leaving the deck in TOC writing just runs and runs.  the TOC writing never ends.  I have left it for 20mins or so, it just keeps going...

4.  I haven't opened the machine up yet, but plan on doing so...

thanks for your help so far!  Any thoughts as to what maybe wrong?

Gareth

[NGY]

20 minutes TOC writing is not good ... When you open the machine, you may want to check the magnetic head first. I mean, after you took a look at what happens when the deck gets stuck in TOC writing: disc spinning or not, sled moves back to the TOC area or it does not, etc.

Without the TOC written back after the recording session the only way to check if the actual recording is on the disc and it has no problems is via "TOC cloning". You would need access to another deck and clone another, good disc's TOC onto this one. If the recording was OK, then you can play it back (track marks, titles will not match obviously).

I am trying to separate the possible laser issue from the magnetic head problem. But a quick visual check on the magnetic head will certainly tell the "obvious", if that's the culprit.

[mindsetcentral]

OK, just opened the machine.

When placing in a disc with music on it and erasing it, then ejecting it.  the screen says "TOC Writing", but the disc is not moving and the write head does not engage.
But...

When recording one track the a blank disc and ejecting, "TOC Writing" appears, the disc spins and ejects without issue.  Then re-inserting the disc and doing an all erase then works...
its very weird.
 

It seems to be when only putting in a disc that already has music on it and doing and all erase this happens.  the disc does not spin.

Any ideas?

Gareth

[NGY]

15 minutes ago, mindsetcentral said:

When recording one track the a blank disc and ejecting, "TOC Writing" appears, the disc spins and ejects without issue.  Then re-inserting the disc and doing an all erase then works...
its very weird.
 

It seems to be when only putting in a disc that already has music on it and doing and all erase this happens.  the disc does not spin.

I am afraid I lost track. These are the two scenarios:

a.) you record one track on a blank disc, then you can eject and it writes the TOC back properly. (Side question: can you playback that track, before attempting "all erase"?) Then you reinsert that same disc, and do an "all erase", and again, TOC is written and you get back your blank disc.

b.) you put in a disc that already has music on it, then after doing an "all erase", TOC is not written back, disc not spinning, sled not moving.

What other difference is there between the two discs in case a.) and b.)? I mean, both already have music on them before the "all erase", so there must be something else. Was disc b.) previously recorded on this same machine?

 

[mindsetcentral]

Thanks again.

Here are my answers:

A.  Yes you are correct and I can play back the recorded track.

B. Yes, you are correct.

No sure if the discs were recorded on the same machine?  That should not make a difference should it?  I bought a job lot of discs from ebay and I'm recording over them.  When using my portable MD recorder there are zero issues, all works.  only issues when using the deck...
 

Do you think it is the discs rather than the machine?

Gareth

[NGY]

I think it is probably the disc then. If you can record a blank disc and play it back, then your deck must be OK. The 940 is a very solid machine.

I had a similar case in the past, when discs recorded in one device I could not erase in another one, but finally I could erase them in a third one. If your portable can erase those discs, then that is the way to go. You can then check back, once you erased a questionable disc in the portable, try the A scenario with that blanked disc. If it works (records, plays, erases), the deck must be OK.

If you want to go a step further, you may want to check the decks internal error messages, whether or not it detected something erratic behaviour.

[mindsetcentral]

I agree.  Deck works fine, except when wiping discs.  Gets stuck on the TOC writing..

It's all very strange...
 

Not sure what else I can do? Aside from erasing discs in my portable recorder first.

Anything else to try?  or am I just stuck with this?

Thanks again for all your help on this.

Gareth

[NGY]

Here is the thing: the TOC of a recordable MD can contain a lot of other information besides the track marks and titles. (Unfortunately, I am not able to give you more details on that because I am not familiar with how the TOC structure looks like.) If, for example, an - unknown - device previously wrote the TOC in a "non-standard" way (containing some non-standard data), your deck might just consider that TOC invalid that it cannot write to, and stops there with an error. If the deck does this with some of the discs but performs well with others, I would not be too much concerned. As long as the test above shows a "cleaned" disc now works properly. If it is not the case, then you can begin worrying :-) .

Yes, just use your portable to blank those discs, before recording in the deck.

 

[mindsetcentral]

Thanks again for all your help on this!   You really helped a lot!

Gareth

[NGY]

You're welcome. Enjoy your 940, it is a good one :-) !

[NGY]

20 minutes ago, NGY said:

I am not familiar with how the TOC structure looks like.

Now, I am a little familiar :-) .

Here is some good reading.

[sfbp]

As an aside, I've definitely seen something like this with 1GB disks in a portable recorder that is misbehaving itself. Result, a disk that cannot even be formatted.