MZ-N707 repair, and another one breaks
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- Опубліковано 7 сер 2024
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Here's a long, somewhat boring repair video where I try several things and finally get the player working. I was thinking afterwards and I think I know now what was causing the problem.
Coincidentally (or annoyingly), the other N707 I have now has a problem that I think is related. If so, the solution might be key to repairing many more players. I'll test them both and I'll be back with another video (at some point) explaining what I find out. So, stay subscribed, and click that.... Oh, you know the drill by now.
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The most common fault I have found on a good number of MD portables from either Sony or Panasonic, is the tiny switches on the circuit board that detect when the door is closed and the one that detects if a battery is inserted. They usually either oxidize or get some of the leaked battery fluid in them, a blast with contact cleaner and a good manual workout usually gets them working again. The player/recorder will not respond or attempt to read the MD if it thinks the disc door is open.
Also, I've actually managed to get a few players running off a gumstick by squeezing the positive battery contact's hinge with a pair of needle nose pliers. The brass bushing is typically connected to a post coming off the PCB and sometimes gets loose to the point where it isn't carrying enough current from the battery to allow the unit to function. Or, even if it does function, the battery level indicator will often indicate a low battery when it is in fact fully charged.
Lastly, if you are having trouble with your gumstick battery always showing up at 3 or 2 bars out of the 4, despite having cleaned all the contacts and charging your battery multiple times on an external charger, or even charging it inside the unit, try sanding the negative and positive terminals on the battery itself. Nothing too crazy, a light sanding with 600 or 800 grit will do. After sanding, clean the terminals and you most likely will see the battery meter go to full, or at least remain at 3 bars for longer.
Pardon the lengthy comment, hope this will help any MD lovers out there keep their machines going. Unless it's a laser or write head issue, most units aren't really so easy to kill with simply age and corroded battery terminals. A bit of work usually brings them back, which is why I adore them.
Great comment. Thanks for the tips and info.
I've often suspected the post of the battery door as being either too loose, or insulated with battery corrosion. I never thought of using needle nose pliers on it. Thanks.
I'll try sanding the battery terminals. Initially I'll try my fibreglass-tipped pen thing, and progress to sandpaper.
Thanks again. Lengthy comments are good, they often are length because of excellent info.
Thank you I have just acquired five of these only one working will try these tips just found the ac chargers for them.
N505 and N707 are almost the same but the latter has a mic jack. I find that it's often internal corrosion that does the N series in. It's barely noticeable to the naked eye but if you give the lid switch a clean up, that usually helps a lot. Most of these lovely devices are victim to batteries being left in them the day the owner got an iPod for their birthday.
Yep, it's so sad. Coincidentally, I shot another video that goes live Friday week with these N707s, and fixing a N505.
Thanks for the tip!
That was really good, I have a couple of MD players to film for my tech Wednesday series for
January, thanks for these as they will help me a lot.
Thanks. I look forward to you vids then.
Gorgeous device, I hope you can repair the second one too.
Thanks. I agree. The other one has been working for a long time, and is now developing a fault, which I hope will get worse, so I can test my idea of a definite fix.
Huge amount of corrosion on the battery contact!!! Never seen it shell off like that before.
Yeah, it was weird how it just broke away. Handy though, made it easier. There was a lot. Lesson for me there was that if someone else cleaned the contacts, take it apart anyway and remove the rest. Thanks.
Waiting the part 2. I have one, shame blue model, same problem.
My blue on is working now. Will continue to test the silver one. I need it to start misbehaving so I can test my theory with another video. If it doesn't misbehave, I'll let you know what my theory is. Hope you can get yours working too.
Might be worth reflowing the battery connection to the pcb. That much corrosion might have made it intermittent. Some light sanding with fine sand paper on the battery spring and positive side could also help. I've had a couple of players behave similarly to your silver one. As I applied pressure to different parts of the body, it would sometimes cut out, or cut in. Pretty satisfying that a big chunk of corrosion just fell off in one piece. :)
lol, very satisfying.
I'll bear your suggestion in mind about the reflowing, and I might try that too, but I have a hypothesis about a different cause of this problem. I won't say more now because I'm no expert in this stuff.
The blue one appears to be working fine now, but I'm testing them both and almost hope that one fails again so I can figure out for sure what's going on.
Thanks for the tip and info.
Looking forward to the next part and the hypothesis. There aren't enough Minidisc repair videos around!
Thanks. The next part is up now, but no conclusive proof of what fixed it yet. I'm still learning.
If you read this.. a friend handed me a box of things to go thru and decide what to keep or trash, and one of the items is a MZ-N707.
The issue is when a disk is inserted, there is a rattle as it is spinning. Sometimes goes away, sometimes is really loud. Could this be a disk issue, or the part that spins the disk? I hate to trash it if it is a simple fix.
There are several cameras, unknown cables, chargers, parts for mounts for an action camera, game cables etc, so not sure if any fits the Sony, but if the issue is simple, I will go thru everything and see what fits.
It could be the disc, but more likely the player. Have a listen to the players in my last week's video and if it sounds the same then it's the player.
Better still, record a short video of it and upload it to your UA-cam channel. Let me know here and I'll have a listen. If it's the player, it is worth fixing if possible.
Mz n505 board is similar. I find Broked soldering of digital sound amplifier on my 505. Litle pressure upside chip turns normal operate audio.
Thanks. I've seen that problem in someone else's UA-cam video. I can't remember whose for sure, but it might be a sjm4306 video.
Next time if you see corrosion on contacts, use citric acid or lemon juice to prevent damage from scratching contacts.
Thanks. I had run out of white vinegar and didn't have anything else to hand. I prefer white vinegar to lemon juice as it's spirit vinegar and doesn't contain anything else. I still use IPA afterwards.
i have couple of MD, the most worse problem is they do not work with rechargeable 1.2 volt batteries. so i use ext source or orginal non rechargable AA 1.5 V batteries while testing
I have been having problems with rechargeable batteries, but I now own a really good charger that helps.
Hello! I've got a MZ-NE410 with what looks to be a janked up USB jack. One of the pins looks misaligned. Do you know what kind of USB mini-B jack Sony uses in these players? There look to be several different types and I want to make sure I get the right one.
Sorry, I don't know what kind. I can't think of any way to find out either. Sorry.
I have the blue model, but it no longer records, what could I do to make it record again?
Sorry, I don't know. I've never fixed that problem.
Hey cbits tech. I want to buy this mds-s38 deck recorder player. Except it doesn't have the remote. I wanna buy the remote separately off eBay: it's an it's an Rm-D7M. do you think those are compatible? They're both of eBay. I'm pretty sure the remote belongs to the next upgraded version of deck recorders which is which is mds-je520. But usually a newer remote can work on an older deck recorder , reverse compatible like. Please get back to me, thank you! 😊
Sorry, I have no idea about deck remotes. Portable player in-line remotes are sometimes compatible, but often not. If the remote is fairly cheap it's worth a gamble, if you can use the features of the deck from the deck's own buttons. Sorry, I don't have more info.
@@CBitsTech OK thanks for your input I appreciate the help 👍
@@paulleblanc1567 👍
I think it was the lid switch
I think I got it working, but for some reason the silver one is back in my 'for repair videos' box. I'll check the lid switch first, thanks.
So do you repair MiniDisk players for customers? I have two, one looks like it is working but no sound, the other one doesn't even power up.
1. Gold MZ-N505 Type R doesn't power up
2. Blue MZ-R70 powers up, no sound.
Please contact me for next steps to have them repaired or get you some more spare parts
I'm sorry, I don't repair for anyone else. I'm really just making up as I go along, and some are beyond repair for no apparent reason.
If I had to guess, I'd suspect the N505 has a lid-detect switch that needs some IPA or contact cleaner. Does the R70 output sound via the Line Out?
@@CBitsTech Thank you for getting back to me. The R-70 does not have a line out, only a line in. It has two headphone jacks, The first one has a remote jack. The N505 only has the one headphone jack for the remote.
Sorry, my mistake. I assume that neither headphone jack works.
That player can only play SP discs. If the disc is LP2 or LP4, then it will look like it's playing but it will be silent.
If that's not the problem, and neither headphone jack is working, then it could be the amplifier circuit/chip that isn't working, or (less likely) both headphone jacks need re-flowing (resoldering).
Hey cbits tech. I have an Mz-n707 the blue one on your pic of the three or four of them. I just can't remember I spoke to you a couple years ago of the website that legitimately can help you plug your minidisc into your computer and acts as windows xp. Is it something I can talk about here? I thought I bookmarked it, guess get back to me thank you
I can't think of anything that makes a PC act like Windows XP. But if you have Windows 10 or 11 then the Web Minidisc Pro site and chrome browser would work. You will need the driver though. From memory there's an installer called DIAG or something, but it's explained in the Web Minidisc Pro help pages.
@CBitsTech okay that's very helpful, thank you. I'll tell you how it goes when I get to it. Cheerio
@@CBitsTech Zadig is a Windows application that installs generic USB drivers. Web MiniDisc Pro needs generic libusb drivers to connect to the recorder.
@@paulleblanc2474 Great, thanks. Good luck.