Sony Minidisk MDS302 doing weird things

My minidisk was doing weird things, then I spotted the problem.

[@davidelliott8016]

I love my sony mds je530, its the heart of my system, mostly as a DAC for my cd player and using the optical from my computer. I'm still old school when it comes to music and I love my physical media. Always learning from this channel!

[@revoxjazz8317]

Thanks, man! This video of yours made me want to resume the restoration operations of my two MD players MDS-JE640. They are completely different models but this served as an incentive. Greetings from Portugal.

[@ricfair9919]

Nice unit, wish I could have owned one back in the day. If only all repairs would be this simple.

[@andrew1479]

Fallen in love with this format all over again!

[@jcbdiggers1]

Love my minidisks players..used from the days as a DJ...Great video..

[@retrogamer33]

Same here, I did sell all my recorders/players. recently found a portable one with 15 disks, remote and other accessories for £12

[@jcbdiggers1]

@@retrogamer33 wow that was a bargain..my Sony can link to a laptop (net versions) but iv yet to work it out lol

[@JoKe1960]

Strong video for md lovers THANK YOU mate !! all good for you and your famely in the future !

[@38911bytefree]

I bought a Sony FH636 CD minisystem long ago, for cheap. Really nice unit. You needed to power cycle it like 10 or 20 times before it could initialize correctly (on the other attemps, it will show garbage on display, random leds all over). Made a search and discovered the supercap issue, since it is in the CPU rail once it becomes shorted (or low resistance) it dont allow this rail to regulate properly. Once you get it right, it worked for months .. as soon as you unplugged it .... good luck getting it back. But man, the sound and the kick for this small unit was insane, it was a ripper, really good Sony.

[@johnsampson1096]

Kind of a cool format, Dave. I have a car mini disc recorder player that will let you record to disc while listening to AM of FM. It will go back when you hit record in case you miss the beginning of a song being played. Nice feature! Sorry the format never really took off. My nephew has his entire music collection on his phone. Times have certainly changed! As always, thanks for your tutorials! Let's all hope for a better 2021........

[@saarike]

Simply excellent! My humble thanks.👍🎅👍

[@jdmccorful]

Interesting discovery. I will try to maintain in my memory bank for possible use. Thank you.

[@germainesaint4091]

The old adage…”If it ain’t broke, don’t try to fix it” 😅

[@GustoTheGamer]

Great repair ! Power caps have a short lifespan.

[@Oldgamingfart]

Used to get similar weird behaviour/ lock-up issues with those little NiCad cells. I recall Philips used to favour them for use as memory backup in their TVs and VCRs back in the day. They make a right old mess when they'd leak..

[@windysolar1Planet-Earth]

got the 303 with the same problem a simple fix thanks

[@stephengorin3059]

I have had a number on sony minidisc deck over the years. One think that they also suffer from is the little tack switches that detect the the mechanical position of the deck and if the disc is overwrite protected. When these fail it can cause a multitude of problems. It's best to replace all four tack switches at the same time. The problem is that in Australia sony no longer carry spare parts for these mini disc players. All these sony players used the same basic deck. I enjoy your programs.

[@GeorgeGeorge-xj2bc]

Exactly,once had this issue not in a MD but in a DAT mechanism along with few capacitors around a linear regulator.

[@nickfatsis9607]

You could spray contact cleaner in those swiches that's what I do, the same with DAT, spray some contact cleaner in them and activate them for about 10 seconds and they're like new.

[@d.a.d.divorcedanddetermine8385]

I have the MDS-S35 and looking at your video the mechanism looks exactly the same. My unit was working but had been sitting for a year or so. I tried it last night and it would not take in a disc. I opened it up and saw the belt busted. I put in a new belt today and now it will suck the tape in but it will not fully load. The mechanism gets stuck during the loading process and I can see where it keeps trying to engage so I am not sure if the gear teeth are out of alignment somewhere. Thoughts?

[@paulrb894]

Would you recommend leaving my Sony j-es520minidisc recorder plugged in 24/7 to keep supercap charged up I normally unplug it when finished ?? Cheers

[@Watcher3223]

Reminds me of a minor problem that my Sony CDP-X229ES CD player had. It was nothing that made the player unusable, but what would happen is that the custom file memory would have garbage in it. If you recalled it, you would have random configurations set on the player. Wound up being exactly the same problem as your MiniDisc player; faulty supercapacitor. Replaced it and the problem went away.

[@d.a.d.divorcedanddetermine8385]

I love that Pat Metheny song called Last Train Home. It transports me back to when I was a kid watching the weather channel. I loved weather and would watch it all day long as a kid. When The Weather Channel did the business travel forecast they would play great music with cool artwork and that song by Pat Metheny was one of them. Last year I heard that song for the first time in over 20 years and it instantly took me back to when I was a kid. The power of music!!

[@12voltvids]

Was listening to the radio and they played a berry white song and instantly i was back in 1976.

[@thomasleerriem6872]

Supercaps are notorious for leaking. My Fluke 289 multimeter has the same issue, and it seems to be widespread problem amongst Fluke 289 multimeters.

[@zooombar]

Hi Dave, nice video. I am currently trying to get my MDS302 up and running again. It has been sitting on a shelf for over 15 years. I turned it on but got no real feedback on the display. When I tried to insert a disc, nothing happened. Now the disc is stuck in the drive, but as the motor won't start it's still sticking out a bit. Any idea what this could be and how I can get this really great player working again? Regards, Mat

[@DeepSound_Music]

Great information! Quick question I have a Sony walkman TCD _D8 Dat that for some reason dose not read the pgm ID's and was wondering if this could be a memory battery issue that causes it not to play a Dat on this unit. It will record a new recordings and ID them but when it tries to playback an already recorded Dat it just runs the dat tape and it's not reading the pgm to play the audio.

[@12voltvids]

If you can make new recordings and play them but not play any old recordings the alignment may be out of spec and it can't read the tracks on the tape. They were like mini vcr, and tape guides were known to shift.

[@mrjsv4935]

I have a Sony with failed battery too, but it's the Playstation 3 120gb Slim :P It just forgets the time and date but doesn't seem to cause other problems. It even gets the correct time and date from internet, when logged in to Playstation Network. At some point I'll replace the button cell battery but it takes quite a lot of disassembly to gain access to it and as I have no experience about it, it'll probably take a lot of time :D

[@d.a.d.divorcedanddetermine8385]

I used to record music off Sat TV back in the 90s too I think it was Music Choice as well. I liked the EASY station.

[@12voltvids]

Music choice, DMX, Galaxie and now Stingray here.

[@Hounddoggy33]

"One Day In Your Life" is one of the first songs I learned on guitar!

[@JamesE707]

Hi 12Volts, Another great fix!, I've never owned a minidisc - very interesting video! BTW, I often clean the underside of the board after any soldering, just in case I created a high-resistance path, and maybe that might apply here, essentially to keep that super-cap charged for as long as possible? Regards.

[@12voltvids]

Rosin is not conductive. No need to clean it off.

[@jefffoster3557]

I would love to see more md repairs. I own many of these and it is difficult to keep them running corrct it seems. All Sony brand and the problems seem to stem in the loading mechanisms for the most part......maybe the micro switches needing cleaning.

[@12voltvids]

Well i only have 2. This one and the mz1. I have a car unit buy it is packed away somewhere. Haven't used it since about 2000

[@NeathVideos]

@@12voltvids I have a MZ-1 I’ve noticed if I leave it record a complete disc on its own, the disc is blank when played back,but if I press stop at any point,as long as it’s before the end of the disc,then it stops and writes the TOC,and the disk plays fine-is this normal ? Could you try that on yours ?

[@seanmcdonald987]

@@12voltvids How about some fixing of Aiwa personal stereo Walkmans from the late 80’s and early 90’s. They had great sound and feather lite controls however most are knackered from bad e caps. ☹️

[@12voltvids]

@@NeathVideos not normal. It probably has a super cap in it that has failed. Will try mine and see if mine has failed.

[@12voltvids]

@@seanmcdonald987 Don't have any to work on.

[@JasonHalversonjaydog]

acts like my car, has a constant issue until the mechanic looks at it then it runs perfectly! lol

[@Shnick]

The MDS-JE510s use a VL2020 battery instead of a super cap. Much better design, but still susceptible to being replaced.

[@SavageGame1998]

That's an interesting disc machine, I've never seen a mini disk machine in person before.

[@DrDroogkloot]

How old are you? It’s to bad this format never made it. It’s killed by the mp3 players. The mp3 players took over the market. It’s to bad. A lot of portable units were able to record and do all the functions this unit can do. I still have some good working devices.

[@SavageGame1998]

@@DrDroogkloot I was born in 98.

[@DrDroogkloot]

@@SavageGame1998 oke. 🤣 a few years later came the mp3 players on the market. I guess if you want you could look for a md device. Great sound on small discs.

[@GrumpzTheCat]

Yea, it would have been nice if it made it, its nice how you can actually rewrite it instead of sessioning and move tracks around.

[@tenmillionvolts]

Here in NZ, mini discs were rare as hens teeth. We had almost no titles available and the players started around $800USD. I knew one person with a player and he saved hard to buy an old second hand one. They were the choice of reasonably well off recording artists and that was about it. As for DAT, double that price and rarity. I knew NO ONE with a DAT player. They were the choice of proper well off recording artists :-)

[@zx8401ztv]

Evil Crapacitor :-D it's lasted well. And i thought you were going to clean the deck and re-lube it, but i was wrong, i often are :-D. Minidisk is something i never had, i didn't have the money and tapes did what i wanted at the time.

[@neverknowit11]

Where did you purchase the super capacitor?

[@12voltvids]

Lee's electronics.

[@THOMMGB]

Dave, I own a Sony MDS-JE510 minidisc deck. It has problems with ejecting. While ejecting, it makes loud grinding noises that don't sound very good. From what I've heard, several different models of Sony minidisc decks are known for having this problem. I'm not sure if there's a repair, but thought maybe you'd know. Have you heard of this problem and is there a procedure to repair it? Thanks a lot, Tom

[@Bobby_Snoof]

Here is the answer to your questions : kzbin.info/www/bejne/hZjYaIehhbxlg6c&ab_channel=ThisDoesNotCompute

[@jeremytravis360]

The type of solder wick braid of the type you were using, in the UK was sometimes good and sometimes bad depending on where I bought it. Oddly enough it Tandy who sold the best type. I didn't take to Minidisc because I remember buying a prerecorded copy of Cher I Believe and the CD sounded much better than the Minidisc version.

[@jasejj]

The crap wick can be made to work by loading it up with flux.

[@jeremytravis360]

@@jasejj I found that out later on. People like RS Component back in the 70s sold a lot of type of braid but quite expensive.

[@fwgmills]

Everything always works right when you put a camera on it.

[@jonsingle1614]

I love love LOVE my MD....I have many ....decks....portable....and car 😀

[@12voltvids]

I have 3 here too

[@jonsingle1614]

@@12voltvids 2 home decks....4 portables....3 car decks....one of the portables is HI MD....its very nice

[@jeffadams5510]

I wish minidisk had won the war over cd's we know today-mainly because they are encased in a protective shell-duh! PLUS shaft mount car decks would have still been in play with a format this size. Oh I see surface mount electrolytics in there-hope those are still good!

[@paulb4661]

Come again ? With its ATRAC 292kbps compression and sound quality comparable to that of an mp3 ? No way and thank God it didn't ! SACD on the other hand ... yes please 😉

[@ozzstars_cars]

I would suggest as a manly repair tech you do not admit to owning a Mariah Carey CD. lol Nice diagnosis and fix!

[@12voltvids]

I didn't buy it. Sony shipped a few pre recorded minidisks for demo. I have a bunch of pre recorded dat tapes too. I got em all free .

[@anthonyr.3697]

Mariah Carey is awesome

[@SpeccyMan]

Tut tut tut! It is spelled Minidisc!

[@davewilliams5932]

I have a Sony minidisc deck mds-je510 , and everything seems to be working but there’s no sound. What do you think that could be causing this?.

[@12voltvids]

Broken.

[@davewilliams5932]

@@12voltvids ok, so how do I start search for the root cause if you don’t mind saying?.

[@tacofortgens3471]

Start at the DAC, maybe its on mute?

[@davewilliams5932]

I tried a Bruce Springfield mini disc and it played I got sound, but when i try playing my own recorded disc it is showing that it is playing, but I get no sound. What could be the problem?.

[@tacofortgens3471]

@@davewilliams5932 does it play on your other minidisc machine?

[@Bushougoma]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="738">12:18</a> that super cap was made by Elna there's your problem. Sony and Toshiba liked to use them a lot in their gear. They are pretty easy to identify at a glance by their vents a straight line with an arc going across it. The only Japanese capacitor manufacturer I stay away from.

[@12voltvids]

Elna caps were shit. Everyone knows that!

[@tinagladu3744]

thanks dave i think thats what is wrong with mine

[@josephfiumara9065]

How do U go about getting parts ?

[@12voltvids]

Many times parts are not available and the unit is not repairable. Only a few parts are still available.

[@tacofortgens3471]

Is minidisk magnetic like tape or optical like CD

[@12voltvids]

Its called MO, Magneto Optical. On record a laser heats the magnetic layer of the disk to above the curie temperature over 500'C momentarily. Directly above the spot is a magnetic head that is pulsing north and south to imprint its magnetic signal on the disk. As the disk surface moves away from the hot spot it remembers whatever the magnetic head was imprinting on the disk at that moment. On playback the laser is on low power and it reads the angle that the light is reflected back. The magnetic signal that was imprinted on the disk during recording changes the phase of the light reflecting. The disk in NOT magnetic however, only the magnetic signal was used to change the crystal structure during record. CDRW is similar however it is done by modulating the laser as opposed to just heating the disk and using a magnetic head to do the recording.

[@joshm264]

I wish MD stuff wasn't so expensive because I'd love to get a player and some disks

[@jasejj]

Might be worth buying from Europe or Japan. Some minidisc decks are dirt cheap on ebay UK for example (I have seen them go for under $10, although shipping may be an issue). Some of the later units had 120v-compatible switching power supplies.

[@allenpamscofield]

Yeah, they command a high price nowadays....and are getting harder to find. I bought one in 1998, a Sony MDS-JE520. Sold a few years later and wish I hadn't. Just acquired another JE520 and it will replace my MDS-JE500. No particular reason....I just like the 520 better.

[@XMguy]

Last scene in the intro on the plasma is the movie Pulse from 1988 isn’t it?

[@12voltvids]

What?

[@rawr51919]

@@12voltvids I'm sure he meant what you had on the screen during the video at one point

[@leonjohnsonjr3331]

I had change the belts but it stills have issues

[@lawrencecavens5760]

In your intro - I would of suspected { sounds like a Mode switch } of course i know there's none in mini discs.

[@12voltvids]

They do have micro switches to detect a disk in and laser home position.

[@leonjohnsonjr3331]

I check my battery is 5.6 v so my is good my problem was the belt but it works on certain mini disc

[@Poppinwheeeeellllllieeeeez]

another great trouble shoot and repair. i likethis media format. digital downloads and high capacity hdd killed this format. napster anyone...? LOL that is arguably 54-40's best record. great canadian band.

[@leonjohnsonjr3331]

This was my first minidisc back in 96 I paid $500 for it

[@cipry27]

The belt is the problem for most of them

[@waltercarpenito1737]

a lot of adds again marry Christmas 12-volts

[@12voltvids]

More ads are better. More money in my pocket.

[@DrDroogkloot]

I hate those ads.. it’s to much lately.

[@waltercarpenito1737]

mind of its own most SONY-S do work on them and find out

[@aramkaterdjian5952]

thats what it dose on mine

[@leonjohnsonjr3331]

I bought mine in 96

[@user-vc8hm6lz5s]

Почему все в таком говняном состоянии?

[@d.a.d.divorcedanddetermine8385]

I have the MDS-S35 and looking at your video the mechanism looks exactly the same. My unit was working but had been sitting for a year or so. I tried it last night and it would not take in a disc. I opened it up and saw the belt busted. I put in a new belt today and now it will suck the tape in but it will not fully load. The mechanism gets stuck during the loading process and I can see where it keeps trying to engage so I am not sure if the gear teeth are out of alignment somewhere. Thoughts?