Panasonic Repairs - High Praise Experience

That's nice to know, since I just sent him my EH55.

I wonder why those optical pickups keep going out? This is my third one. Of course, I have made over 3000 DVDs, and own nine Panasonic DVD recorders! Most of those DVDs were made using my EH55s, so it's not like I am babying them. Both of my EH55s have (now) had the optical pickup go out. As long as they are fixable, I'll have them repaired. These machines are too useful to not fix them.

That's MICKINCT.

I may be in the same boat at some point in the near future
A few weeks ago I started having issues with one of my EH-50s making a terrible grinding noise, similar to a dirty spindle sound but a little different. It was when I was trying to HS off my HDD to a new Sony 16x white top DVD. I have used these Sonys in the past with no incident although this was a new spindle. After this failure I cleaned the spindle and tried the same thing with a Sony 16x shinny top DVD. This DVD finished but did have occasional grinding noises.
Next I tried one of my old stock Ty 8x lacquer DVDs and that burn completed with no issues or noise. I don't have any AZO Verbs left(prior this was my major usage disc which I've never had a issue but I ran out during my dubbing project) but I did recently purchase a spindle of Life series Verbs. For the heck of it I tried one of those and low and behold no issues or noise Since these issues I've been kind of avoiding this machine and using a similar EH-50. During a HS burn(again with one of my new Sony white top DVDs) I had a similar but less noticeable grinding episode. The DVD copied completely but finalization took a bit longer than normal. I tried playing back the DVD in a player and everything seemed OK. Since then I've burnt and finalized 6? of the same DVDs on this EH-50 all with out an incident....

I think I may have a issue with one of my EH-55s also It doesn't grind but I do occasionally get a bad RAM burn. This is my Tivo offloading DVDR which I record to HDD, HS to RAM, HS from RAM to one of my other DVDRs edit and finally HS to DVD. The issue seems to be the initial HS RAM burn. The copy goes fine but occasionally(1 out of 30??) the RAM title is corrupt. Everything goes fine until the final HDD to DVD burn, when I get to the corrupt title the burn fails and that title doesn't copy over. Previous titles are still in tack and I can add more to the DVD but if I try the corrupt title it will always fail. If I play either the RAM disc or EH-50s HDD I get lockups somewhere during the title. If I go back to my original EH-55s HDD the title is just fine with no lockups. If I HS the same title off my EH-55 and do the same procedure everything copies fine. I've tried many different RAM discs and even threw away a couple that seemed to fail more than others but they all occasionally produce a bad RAM burn.
My guess is it isn't the RAM disc but rather my original EH-55 occasionally produces a bad RAM burn(I've never had issues burning DVDs on this EH-55, just RAMs). I don't know if the laser is going and flaky RAM burning is the first sign but I'd sure like to know for sure what's going on. I hate wasting disc space or the possibility of corrupting a disc. I've gotten to the point where I never delete a title off my EH-55s HDD until I know I've made a successful DVD burn, probably a good practice anyway but not always practical.

So anyway I to may be PM'ing Mickinct sometime in the near future. Oh as Digado pointed out, the easiest way to remember Mick's name is....MICKinCT.....Mick in Connecticut

Well jjeff, all I can say is, in all three cases I have had with the optical pickup going out, the machine was operating perfectly, no sign or indication of any issue at all, and then INSTANT failure! Literally, 100% function to 0% function with no time in between. If you are seeing a gradual degradation, then it isn't the same thing. My failures have been like a light bulb burning out, one moment on, then next out. Oh, in fact, that is almost exactly what is happening.

I too have had issues with -RAM disks, which I use and rely on rather too much I fear. Right now I have three -RAMs that in my EH50 and EH55 machines say are write-locked--not a very good thing for a -RAM disk. The machines say that the disks ARE -RAM, but that they are read-only. Oddly enough, my EH59, does not see them as locked and can use them. I don't get it.

Anybody with any ideas about this?

I also see, with my -RAM disks, the occasional title with short corrupt pieces that won't copy properly. I don't gat that either.

I also have the "policy"of not deleting a title until I have made the DVD from it, and have used my duplicator to do a test&copy on that disk, testing the original for proper format and errors, and then making a backup copy. Once I have both the original and second copy completed, only then do I delete the title from the machine. Yes, it's a bit of a hassle, but it gives me some confidence that I have a good copy of the content. If it's worth making a DVD, then it's probably worth expending a WHOLE $0.60 making two DVDs. I'm not THAT cheap that I balk on the extra $0.30 for the second copy.


Oh, and jjeff, "Previous titles are still in tack and I can add more..." Really, "in tact"? How about just "intact" in stead. See what I did there?

so whats the going rate to fix these things?

but spell check didn't complain
Maybe RAM discs are just a but flaky then I'm going to experiment for a while with doing a real time initial burn to RAM instead of to HDD and then HS burning to RAM. I've already tried this a couple times with no failures yet.....of course if I only get a failure of 1 of 30 it will take some time to know if this is indeed a better route to take. I don't really like real time burns but it's not like it will save that much laser time. With my 3x RAM discs it still takes ~30 minutes of HS burning to fill a RAM disc vs 2hrs. in SP.

If I FR something down to a RAM, and then HS spped it back up to the HDD, it only takes me 18 minutes. I guess as I look back, I rarely HS copy down to my RAMS, I use FR speed in real time, and then if i need to make a dub, THEN it's HS to hdd and HS to a -R disc

Thanks to MickinCT for fixing my DMR-EH55S. The DVD recorder unit died and he turned it around in 1 week (I shipped from CA).

Good job!

~

One time, a while back during a discussion about the CopyPal, just to see if it would do it, I made a dub from a DVD-R to a -RAM disk. Surprisingly, it worked just fine! It played okay, BUT, the -RAM disk was no longer a -RAM disk in the eyes of my DVD recorders. It was a -R and write protected. Well, this weekend, on a whim, I put that ruined disk into my EH59 and it formatted it! I then put it in an EH50 and it worked just fine. I don't have an explanation for this, but the EH50 would not touch that the disk aftre the CopyPal got through with it, nor would my EH55 or my EH75. The EH59 being newer might explain it, or maybe it's just a "better" drive, but it did initialize the disk, and that -RAM is now usable again by all of my machines.

Nice! Oh and BTW I've been using my "iffy" RAM discs(the ones that would regularly fail, about every other time) and using them realtime with my same EH-55 I have yet to have a failure It really goes against the grain to use my EH-55 realtime but I guess if I get no failures and truthfully with RAM being so slow(4x) it only increases my drive burn time from 30 minutes to 2hrs/DVD I'm OK with it.
I put part of the fault with the DVDs(because other RAM discs, particularly less used ones) don't fail even with a HS burn but I think their might also be a issue with that EH-55s drive, although now that I've found this workaround I'm probably going to keep using it until things get worse.

If they DO work in your newest EH59, but not in your EH55, it might be a power supply issue (low voltage going to the laster diode) or just a weakening of the laser. If it's the case, you might consider talking to MICKINCT about it. (This is, after all, a thread about his repairs:)) It might be fixable.

Luke you stated this in an earlier reply after I repaired one of your eh55s you said that after the repair you were able to read RAM discs that were no longer readable in your other machines. correct me if I"M wrong.

You may be right, unfortunately this EH-55 is kind of burred under several other pieces of equipment in a rather hard to access rack One of these days when I'm feeling ambitious(probably not until after the Olympics and a summer vacation) I plan on swapping that EH-55 out with one in another stack(which also is on the bottom of that stack ) and this way I'll know for sure if it's the DVDR or just the flakiness of of my RAM discs.
mickinct-I know you asked me to send you(or post) photos of my EH-59 HDMI connector area, which I did, unfortunately somehow I messed up the pictures when trying to reduce them for posting which was after I installed this DVDR near the bottom of one of my stacks If you want I can try again when I reconfigure my stacks later this summer

I am really unhappy with myself for not trying to format that ruined disk in my newly repaired EH55. Sorry about that, it would have made a great data point I think. Anyway, yes, the disks that have appeared to be not usable due to one error or another all seem to work in my newly repaired EH55, as well as my EH59. Some, which just had a "bad spot" on them, don't seem to have that bad spot when using the fixed EH55.

SUBTITLE: Everyone Has Their Own *UNIQUE* Qualities...
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IMHO, jjeff has *NEVER* been known for his spelling, but rather for his VAST knowledge of / experience with Panasonic DVDRs. Possibly if he had an occupation that required writing documentation, and/or providing / responding to *MANY* E-Mails to 'Higher-Ups' daily, his incentive to correct his spelling would improve. But, just to please some 'Faceless Forum User(s)', why bother?!? [Like those folks who can't seem to stop OVER-FORMATing?!? ]

And, again, 'some other BLUNT folks' are not known for their tact, but rather for their knowledge.

Now, if we could *ONLY* get jjeff to use the SPACEBAR a little bit more, the world would be perfect!

Actually in your example, wouldn't it be...... use the SPACEBAR less

SUBTITLE: The SIMPLE Things in Life That Mean So Much...
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No. Actually, ONE little, tiny, space *BEFORE* each '(' and SMILIE would *REALLY* cut down on my 'Anti-Anxiety Pill Count'

Somehow, to ME, it's like chalk SCREECHING across a blackboard.
. Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)

THIS has nothing to do with this thread, please post this somewhere else, thanks.

Long overdue kudos to MICKINCT for both quality of work and speed of repairs. Brought a dead Panny back to life with no issues!
Edited by Redford_48239 - 7/24/12 at 5:33pm

+1 on the praise and recommendation -- mickinct recently repaired my DMR-E85H disc drive after the tray began refusing to open, and it's back to normal operation so I'm a happy customer of his repair services.

Thanks for this shout out--this gives me hope for my Panasonic DVD recorder unit that went on the blink today. I went to Panasonic's website and couldn't believe that it said to send it to Texas. I called their phone # (thinking there was some mistake) & received the same instructions. I kept searching online and came to this forum and found out that someone had followed those instructions to their own peril. Then I heard about this guy. I'll gladly give my business to anyone who will be fair honest (like I'll be to them). Thanx!

MICKINCT has a long track record of proper repairs, where he really DOES fix the problems, done fast with very good communication. There are a lot of people who will endorse his work.

He *IS* the go-to guy for Panasonic repairs.

I wholeheartedly endorse him

His communication with you during the process cannot be topped

I'm just wondering if MICKINCT ever responded to this member?

I own a Panasonic DMR-EZ485v which I purchased in 2009. It has done what I wanted - recording from TV and dubbing vhs tapes. Recently I needed to format some new DVD+Rw discs and
discovered that the recorder wouldn't format the new discs. It continues to reformat the RW's I had for some time, but won't format new ones. Can this be repaired? It appears that mickincn is
the one to do repairs. How can he be contacted?

Yes

My ailing DMR-EZ48V landed on our resident Pany surgeon's porch this afternoon. Can't wait to write a glowing tribute to the good doctor.

I just got back my DMR-ES35V from mickinct. This guy is awesome. Nice guy, great communication, good price and great work. Thank you for breathing new life into my machine with your repair! Highly reccommended to anyone needing a Panasonic repair

I am new to this forum stuff, but it seems like Michinct is a solid repair guy. But, I don't know how to contact him. Can you help?