Never Stop Learning!

I hope you've arrived here looking for a way to fix your Sharp MiniDisc player, because I've literally just done this with an "untested" Sharp MD-MS702 from eBay. It was listed at $39 USD and I offered $34. This was my first MD device in my twenties and I have so many good memories of spending hours recording music from CDs and tediously editing the track and disc names on the tiny screen.  So after wiping the smile off of my face for getting a nice clean MD-MS702, I powered it on only to be greeted by the dreaded "TOC ERRORa" when putting in a disc. If you've googled around, I'm sure you know this is a common failure and probably a fatal one for most people. It's a lot of work getting in there and moving around all the delicate components. Not to mention finding and installing a replacement worm gear! Well, since I had been working on a lot of different Sharp models, I was prepared! I got my gear from Gerry Li   and got down to it.  Taking the s...

Browsing around on Buyee, I stumbled upon this Sharp MD-MT770 in Pink that looked like it was in good shape, though the listing said there were some errors during playback. I figured that at least it was working, and perhaps a quick clean and lube would fix it up! The MD-MT770 is very similar to the Sharp MD-DR7 which I'm very familiar with, so it was easy to open it up and work on it and get it working properly! Not everything will be easy, but while you're shopping around on Buyee, look out for units like these that power on and maybe just need a bit of TLC. Check out the video for more details: I opened it up, cleaned some corrosion near the battery terminals and inside the MD area Cleaned the latch/spring area since it was sticking near the end (though it worked) Cleaned the laser lens Cleaned the sled rail and the exposed parts of the gear shaft Added a thin coating of white lithium grease to the sled rail and exposed parts of the gear shaft Reassembled and tested for 90 m...

Well. This one was supposed to be a video! Unfortunately, mistakes were made...  A recent Buyee find: A beautiful orange Kenwood DMC-T55 with remote (you NEED these with Kenwoods since they aren't cross-compatible between S/T/V models...) that wasn't confirmed to work. It was cheap enough that I gave into temptation! Upon arrival, I confirmed it was indeed in beautiful condition, but wouldn't power on with a gumstick.  The battery terminals that I could see were pretty clean (inside the battery door, negative terminal deeper inside), so it was time to open it up. I started the video and started opening the back and at some point got frustrated with the lighting and focus so paused/unpaused a few times while I adjusted. Unfortunately, when I continued I mistakenly paused the recording instead of unpausing it...  So, I'll just quickly recount the steps here with what's left of the video. Let's open it up - just the bottom panel was needed and you don't need to...

  Sometimes, in this world of limited MiniDisc devices, you end up with a working player but it might be in rough condition externally. If you end up finding a nice case of the same model, you can do a "shell swap"! It's one of the easiest "repairs" since you're just disassembling both units and transplanting the working mechanism (from the "bad" case) into the "good" case. Some MiniDisc devices can certainly be non-trivial to disassemble, but since we're not digging into the electronic components, the hardest tasks will be keeping track of screws and the "order of operations" required to get in and get out properly. Luckily the Sharp MD-ST600 is fairly easy to get into so this was a straightforward swap. I've posted the video, but I'll come back and populate this article with some step-by-step notes and screenshots from the video.

The Sony MZ-R900 is a great, high-quality Sony MiniDisc recorder with an aluminum body and dual "jog dial" controls on the left and right side.  Personally, I like it a lot even though it's not a NetMD-capable device. It feels solid and substantial which I value more than thin and light when were just talking about a matter of millimeters. I strongly encourage you to read this post first and have it handy while you're navigating the Service Menu. I've created a short video here: Service Menu - what is it for? The MZ-R900 (and other devices) had a service menu built into the device for situations when it needed to be serviced. For example, if something happened to the laser's calibration, you could take it to a service center and have them recalibrate it. Or maybe you were fixing something inside and nudged the write head or other part and want to be sure everything's still working fine (NEVER HAPPENNED TO ME). The good news is the entire process is docume...

Whether you're just getting into MiniDiscs or rekindling your love for an old format, you'll see a lot of talk about Sony. Back in the late 90s and early 2000s, Sony was arguably in its prime concerning unique, forward-thinking consumer electronics. They took a lot of risks (that didn't always pan out), but they had a reputation for putting out high-quality devices. Yes, they also created the MiniDisc format and ATRAC (and subsequent generations), the codec used to put musical data onto the MiniDisc itself.                                   Sony created generations of unique players in different form factors with different button layouts as they constantly wanted to iterate and evolve. For most, they are the "only" MiniDisc (MD) player/recorders people look for on auction/marketplace sites and consequently, they command the highest prices compared to the other major players in the MD devi...

When you feel ready to shop for your first or next MiniDisc player/recorder, there are certain things to look out for... In this case, I saw a blue Sony MZ-EH50 - a nice, late-model (2005), affordable Hi-MD MiniDisc player that can play SP/MDLP/Hi-MD discs, but it only worked when connected to an external battery pack. When you see units that work while plugged into a power adapter or an external battery pack, that's good news! That means it is working electronically, but perhaps the seller didn't have a gumstick battery to test with. It could also be that they tested with a gumstick and it didn't work. It's relatively easy to fix devices like this and I've recorded a video showing you how to get to the more difficult, internal terminal. Normally, the terminal on the inside of the flip-open battery door is all you need to clean to get it working.  If you've tried that and it's still not working, try to get a light angled properly so you can see deeper inside...

Every journey starts somewhere! On July 5th, 2023 I noticed, after bragging about my zero subscriber count, that I was no longer at zero! This is nothing to most people that create content, but I'm very happy to have my first subscriber - whoever you are, Thank you! My message might never reach you but thank you! I have two more videos in the queue about repairing some MiniDisc players and hopefully a LOT more to come as I work my way through a tower of MiniDisc devices in various conditions...  Two more boxes from Buyee have come in with miscellaneous MiniDisc devices (not just players/recorders!) and I'm working on another box as we speak! The Technical Initiative - YouTube