Error on gmd16rb md player bought new discs and still no responcet the player is brand new 2 days ago

Hello, Julie -

1. I hope you checked the user manual for your DVD player to determine if your problem is in the list of troubleshooting issues.

2. Check if the disk you put into the DVD player is compatible to play in your machine. Did you try to play a Blu-Ray disk in the DVD player? If so, trying to play a non-compatible disk will result in in the No Disk or Error message.

3. Make sure the compatible disk is inserted into the player tray with the readable side of the disk facing downward.

Best wishes.

You may well be right. Try a different brand of disc.

It is not writing the edit to the disc for some reason...

Possible that the disc is not reading and so the the TOC- table of content error must be referred.
It can be due to a poor head tracking or the failure of the data being read or processed.
Clean the head and use a good disc to be checked once again. If so the optical head can be faulty as it might be getting weaker.

Just clean the lense of the MD drive.

don't think you will like this answer but, it probably time to get a new cd player... you could try using a cd cleaner designed to clean the laser or spray the insides with compressed air.

Probably not. There are various reasons that TOC errors occur, some are fixable and others not, but Sharp MD units were really known to suffer from them for multiple reasons all at once. TOC means Table Of Contents; it's an index file on the disc which tells the host machine where everything on the disc is located and the TOC is modified whenever you edit a disc. Sometimes the file gets corrupted, but often the machine itself simply becomes unable to read the disc and as the TOC is the first thing it tries to read then you get a TOC error.

If you're lucky the TOC error is limited to a single minidisc; if this is the case then it's just one faulty disc and although there are ways to perform TOC cloning they usually involve hacking the host machine in various ways which may cause permanent damage. Unless the disc is important, just chuck it away and use a new one. If the fault is with the player then again, just chuck it into the nearest electronic waste recycling bin. Spares are not available, and as it's a Sharp, diagnosis will be difficult and the fault likely to return.

Many MD players are practically worthless these days so they're often available on FreeCycle and Freegle groups: Sony are the preferred choice by far, and are also the most commonly offered brand, but take whatever is on offer without complaint and worry about problems later; after all, they are free.

Unfortunately this is usually the sign of a failing read/record head unit.

MD players don't work like CD players in that the disc is not constantly spinning and the head is not constantly reading. Instead, the disc spins up and the head reads enough information into memory to play; if there is an error in reading the info the head will make multiple attempts to retrieve the data until it's complete. normally this is highly successful and is why MD players are usually regarded as the best electro-mechanical music delivery system for runners, cyclists and any other moving application.

When the head mechanism wears out the errors increase and the head has to oversample frequently to get the data. Eventually it's doing this so often that it can't also cope with the additional requirements of being in a moving environment and runs out of data, causing skipping and black outs. At the moment your player is fine when stationary but you'll soon find that it will begin to skip even under those conditions.

MD head cleaners are available, but I stopped using them years ago as they are a waste of money. MD's themselves have protective covers which prevent the disc from getting dirty, this also means that they do not transfer dirt to the heads. MD units also do not open all the way like most CD units, so there is no opportunity to accidentally touch the heads. In practice, you'll only find an MD cleaner to be of potential use if you live in a very dusty environment. In most cases if the MD head has actually got dirty enough to need cleaning then an MD cleaner simply isn't man enough for the job.

Replacement heads are rarely available these days and even when they are they're a 'mare to replace. I'd suggest looking out for a free/cheap replacement player. FreeCycle often has free examples which I've sometimes found to be boxed and unused as MD wasn't everyone's cup of tea. This is great for the likes of us as it also means that there are plenty of cheap MD units around as well and also lots of free/cheap used discs (although not all can be erased and re-recorded on).

Inside all MD players are a number of small pinswitches. These sense whether the MD is correctly inserted, whether the record protection tab is activated and whether the protective slide on the MD has retracted after MD insertion. On Other (portable) MD playback devices will also have a pinswitch which checks that the lid has been closed, but yours is slot loading so does not have this.

Pinswitches do not last forever as the internal parts can fail due to fatigue or due to misuse, and in every MD player which I've examined with the symptoms you describe the fault has either been a pinswitch or a faulty solder joint to the switch.

Without examining the unit though it's not possible for me to narrow down the fault any further but if you have basic electrical skills and tools you can use a continuity meter across each pinswitch to determine which one is not working correctly.

The part is cheap: original spares are usually unavailable but can normally be replaced with a generic item or bypassed altogether if the user is prepared to accept minor losses in overall functionality.

Note that a good used MDS-JE480 is still relatively easy to find: my first one cost me just £30 on eBay less than two years ago and since then I've acquired another which was listed on FreeCycle for the princely sum of zilch. Yamaha and Kenwood units are also knocking around although few of these have the MDLP capability of the JE-480. So don't bother with spending much on repairing your current unit without looking for another replacement first as it's likely to be the cheaper option.

HEY,
t is not the topic, but I'm for al long time searching for the sharp md-mt20h and I see that you buy a new md player? Were can I buy him?? thanx