MZN1's like promblem. Reply from another board

[dbaronio]

The N1 is a problem unit, and many were built using a bad optical block which causes problems (like yours) after about a year of use. Unfortunately, the cost for repair usually isn't very economical and it would be better to just get a new portable. Hopefully this isn't your situation, but there are many who are members of this club.

The motor noise you are describing is the buffer and it is normal.

[Christopher]

The reason why there is an issue with the N1 and NetMD period is because it's basically the same internal structure as the N900, a prior non-NetMD unit. Sony thought that they could add NetMD to it and market it as a functional unit - and in most cases, it works fine. Unfortunately, there were a few bad batches that could not handle the overall stress that NetMD induces on the "inferior" internals and hence the issue.

[Modernaire]

I've posted on the other "TOC error Problem" thread my tests and findings.

In a nutshell, here's what I did:

My theory, is that okay, well if Sony just added the stress of the NetMD technology to a N900 revamped, okay, but I think as a result, you have to FORMAT the fresh (or used) MD in SP!

The internal noises are probably normal, except for that clicking sound.

Normally what I do is grab a fresh Sony or TDK blank MD and straight record at LP2. But I always ran into problems, sometimes it would record straight through but in playback it would stall or hang on tracks.

But most of the time I'd get that TOC error click and non-record problem :whatever:

So what I did recently is format an MD in SP, straight through, just recording of nothing (nothing connected and feeding audio), one track from beginning to end.

THEN, I recorded in LP2 and NO problems recording or that dreaded TOC edit hang! :grin:

At least for me this is working. But I've recorded in all manners, you know, pausing and holding that for a while, track marking, stopping recording, then continueing, whatever one does when normally recording and everythings cool.

Now, maybe there was a couple of instances of stalling in playback, but it recovered nicely.

I think that if you don't format an MD, meaning record in SP once and then in LP2 or LP4 or even Mono, then its like the MZ-N1 doesn't recognize the rest of the extended space on the MD, its confused in perhaps reading an LP2 recording as an SP and thinks it should stop and thus a TOC edit hang.

Thats my theory, try it out and let us know what your results are!

Good luck!

:smile:

[MDX-400]

Not too bad a fix, Modernaire, but perhaps more of a workaround at best, unfortunately

As for the original post, them's my words! I'm pretty sure they are at least! LOL, I can't believe they are reappearing here. Well they *might* not be my words, but it sure does sound like something I typed regarding the N1...

Anyway, despite the fact that Modernaire has a fix it certainly shouldn't be like that--that you have to "format" a disc as he puts it. Also that may not apply to all units.

As for the N1 being simply an R900 (you guys above put N900 but I'm guessing you meant R900) with NetMD features I would disagree somewhat.

The R900 and N1 use entirely different mechanisms, LSIs/system controller ICs/ATRAC implementations. For one thing the R900 isn't even Type-R that is the first tip off... They also use different pickups.

The R900's main IC is the CXD2671-201GA whereas the N1 is a few revisions ahead--the CXD2677-202GA. (Info as per minidisc.org).

I thought perhaps the R909 would be a closer match but actually the R909 is closer to the R900 than it is to the N1 from what I can tell.

Looking at the service manuals, all three use entirely different mechanisms, but the R900 and R909 share the same pickup: the LCX-4R. The N1 uses the LCX-5R which I don't think is used in any other unit.

However the R910 *may* use that pickup but I can't tell as the S/M is not available for it.

So I'd say that the closest unit to the N1 would be the R910 and at that you can't really say the N1 was based on the R910 because, quite simply the opposite would have to be true--the R910 was released a while after the N1 was.

However curious, I decided to investigate further... To my shock/surprise I found that the N707 also uses the LCX-5R!!! And guess what? So does the N505

So now what I thought was a flawed pickup might have been too quick a statement.

Not many ppl have noted as many problems with N707s and N505s. I mean sure some of them have had optical pickup failures, BUT not nearly as frequently as N1s...

This is becoming quite a curious "investigation" if you ask me...

It seems the S1 may also have the same pickup but I can't tell--there is no S/M available for it.

The Nxx10 units, I can't tell either--none of their S/Ms are up on minidisc.org either...

It seems the N1 is plagued by optical block problems for some other reason. Either that or N1 users in general put more use on their units than do N707 or N505 units, but I find that hard to believe.

Perhaps the Japanese-made, early N1s had problems for some other reason. And also perhaps why Sony started making them in Maylay where the N707 and N505 were being manufactured. Very strange. Especially to think that the Maylay plant was making units better than in Japan!

My theory now, is that of the above; and also that perhaps the OWH in the N1 is a problem area. Perhaps not many OWHs have been replaced in N1s as the problem area, but, I wonder if the OWH might have a bearing on the laser life instead?

There's also the ribbon-cable business which is quite weird as well. Perhaps it is all in the ribbon cables? Perhaps they are much more easily damaged inside the chassis of an N1 than of the "lesser" units?

I wonder if Sony truly knows the reason/source of the problem with the N1 or if they just keep replacing the pickups without wondering why they are going bad???