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I've been out of it too long. There, I admit it.

I've unearthed my Sony PCM-2600 DAT machine and decided to archive all my old mixes to my mac. All was going well. I finished with a DAT and had dinner.

I came back, stuck a different tape in, hit play and nothing came out. The meters did not light up, either. I tried several other tapes. Same thing. So, I put in the one I already did, knowing full well that it's a good tape. Nothing!

I have fussed and fussed and cannot get audio to play, despite the transport working fine, etc..

Is there some freak-out combination of buttons I may have hit, sending this thing in to wacko mode?

Comments

anonymous Sun, 01/12/2014 - 02:51

Assuming you've already tried powering the unit off and then on again...

Have you or can you insert a cleaning tape? Because it had been so long since you used the deck, it may be just that simple.

If not...

Is the DAT recognizing that a standard tape with previously recorded material has been inserted? If so, does it then display sampling rate? (32, 44.1, 48, etc)

Can you FF or Rewind? Can you Record?

Are there any numbers that come up in the display when you put the tape in?

Is there any sign of an "emphasis" light?

If you don't have one, you may want to DL a manual, it may tell you if you can "reinitialize" the deck or not, although powering it down should do the trick as DAT machines don't really store anything as far as programs or data...

[="http://elektrotanya.com/sony_pcm-2600_sm.pdf/download.html"]SONY PCM-2600 SM Service Manual free download, schematics, eeprom, repair info for electronics[/]="http://elektrotanya…"]SONY PCM-2600 SM Service Manual free download, schematics, eeprom, repair info for electronics[/]

Also, if memory serves correct - man it's been a long time, if you have a remote for the deck, I think that if you press the "counter" button and "0" at the same time, you'll get a set of codes in the display which will tell you the number of hours on the head as well as an error code which translates to a specific problem.

The following are codes for a model PCM R-500, but I suspect the codes are probably the same across the Sony DAT line....

[[url=http://="http://www.hifi-rem…"]Advanced Codes - Remote Homepage[/]="http://www.hifi-rem…"]Advanced Codes - Remote Homepage[/]

imix4u Sun, 01/12/2014 - 07:59

Donny, THANK YOU! You have restored my faith in humanity :)

After a good night's rest and running the cleaner through 6 or 7 times, it's up and running again. It's safe to assume that the heads were gunked up from 20 year old tapes that have sat in warehouses and garages!

Thus, the very reason for the archiving project in the first place.

ROCK ON!