"willywainwright" wrote in message
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On Apr 17, 5:38 pm, "Arfa Daily" wrote:
"willywainwright" wrote in message

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On Apr 16, 12:23 pm, wrote:
On Apr 16, 12:10 pm, willywainwright wrote:

hello, I have a number of sony minidisc players that suddenly won't
play the track for no apparent reason. I've tried batteries and plug
in power with no difference. Powers up fine, shows spinning icon in
window, track number shows but I can't get the units to play the
disc.
I've tried it in all positions, even upside down and sideways but
still no playing of disc
any ideas?
willy

1) Try lens cleaner disc.
2) Now toss the whole shebang in the garbage
3) Get a free cell phone, even they'll come with a MP3 player.

Minidisc is over. It's dead, finished, kaput. And I'm speaking as
someone who bought a MZ-1 when they first came out.

maybe a lens cleaner disc would work. wonder if I can find one. I'll
give it a try. Garbage is full of my cassette tapes and players and
all my 8-track tapes. Willy

Never ever use 'cleaner' discs - not that I recall ever seeing one for a
mindisc anyway. They invariably never do anything to help, and in the
case
of DVDs, I've seen them cause expensive damage where the little 'brush'
hairs embedded in the disc, have caught in the lens suspension, and
mangled
it as the disc has then rotated. I used to do a lot of work on Sony MD
players, when a guy that I did work for was a regional service centre.
For
the most part, failure to play discs is down to a worn out laser.
Sometimes,
you can get around that for a while, by resetting the laser parameters
via
built in diagnostic software, but it is a complex and tricky procedure to
do. Another thing to check is that when the disc is loaded, it is free to
rotate. I had many examples where the turntable had been pushed down on
the
motor shaft, until it jammed the motor. Another very common problem was
'crap in the works'. The sled drive comprises gears with *very* fine
teeth.
The slightest bit of contamination in them, is enough to stop the gears
from
turning. The contamination in question, often seemed to be very fine
sand,
but I guess that it could have been 'pocket grit'. Just one grain in one
of
the gear teeth, will jam the mech and stop the laser from homing, which
will
result in the disc failing to spin up, and the TOC not being read.
Finally,
I suppose you do actually see the display come up and hear the disc
loading
as though it's about to do everything normally ? I have had cases where
the
door-closed sense switch has caused problems. A word of warning though.
You
need to have the patience of a saint to work on these things, and some
very
fine tools, including a quality set of Philips jeweler's screwdrivers,
and
pointed tweezers. Magnetize the screwdriver first. The tiny little screws
are no bigger than an ant, and easily lost. Work on a large sheet of
paper,
and use a strong light, and a magnifying glass. And you need to be able
to
hold your breath pretty well, also ... d :-|

Arfa

Thank you Arfa, great reply, full of good info. Don't know that I will
attempt the fix but at least I want to be sure it's not something I've
overlooked,like the hold switch set to on. In this case I guess these
things just wear out after awhile. Would you, or anyone, know of a
good repair shop to send these units to? And also, would you be able
to tell me about how much you guys used to charge for repairs. Hourly?
just curious.
Willy

My going rate for this sort of stuff is around 22 UKP ( $35 ) an hour. It's
not really a true reflection of the complexity / fiddly nature of the work,
but it's about the most that these jobs will stand. Any more than an hour
plus parts, effectively writes them off.

Arfa