Sony DVD recorder switches off, but won't switch back on

[Weem]

I have a Sony DVD Recorder RDR-HXD560. I have had excellent use for two or three years but now I have hit problems. Can anyone help please?
I can switch off the DVD recorder using its remote control, but I cannot switch it back on again using the remote control, or by using the on/off button on the front of the box.
To get the DVD recorder back on, I have to unplug it at the mains. But even if I do that, the problem recurs i.e. if I switch the DVD recorder off again, it won�t come back on unless I unplug it and start all over again.
Also, when the DVD recorder power does come on after I plug it in again, input select is now defaulting to L1 instead of AV, and I have to manually select AV to get a television picture. This has never happened before.
I changed TV three weeks ago to a Loew, and synchronised the DVD remote with the TV set. It has worked perfectly well for three weeks, so I am not convinced that the new TV is the problem. Having said that, the word �smartlink� has occasionally appeared in the DVD front panel display.
The equipment is connected by scart cables, there has been no change there.
Can anyone suggest what has gone wrong please?

[jman98]

Can anyone suggest what has gone wrong please?[/SIZE][/FONT]

Mechanical failure is what has gone wrong. It happens. I've got a Momitsu region free BluRay player and after owning it for a year the front power button no longer worked but it could be turned on and off by the remote control. Players and recorders aren't designed to last forever. It's not unusual for a recorder at your age to begin to develop serious problems. I'd just buy a new one. Unless you paid a fortune for it a repair is most likely going to cost more than a new recorder. Someone with electronics experience may be able to suggest a way to repair it yourself but I'll warn you that unless you have a lot of experience working with electronics and doing soldering and such that the odds are that you will not be successful in any repair attempts.

[Weem]

I'm not convinced it is mechanical. The mechanics all seem to be operational, but the recorder follows a definite electronic pattern. I also see on a Sony forum that other owners are having the same problem at the moment. Could it be a 'firmware' issue?

[jman98]

I suppose that's possible but it seems highly unlikely to me. I have a hugely negative opinion about Sony but I would be shocked for them to be that incompetent. Did you recently upgrade the firmware? If you have not upgraded the firmware recently it seems unlikely that a firmware issue would take some time to show up unless Sony is just supremely incompetent. Whether you like it or not my explanation makes sense, but we can see what others think.

[jman98]

One reason there might be others reporting the problem now is that the models would have been manufactured around the same time using the same parts and those parts may simply be going bad at the same time. It happens. I read a story about a guy who had a home hard disk array and he lost a disk drive so he replaced it. While it was rebuilding the new drive, another drive failed and he lost ALL his data. Fortunately he had an offsite backup for it. He checked the two disk drives that failed and they had the same manufacture month and year. So it could also be that everyone with your model which was made around the same time is having the problem because the parts are just now going bad at the same time.

[turk690]

Problems, their likely causes, and how to possibly solve them:

I can switch off the DVD recorder using its remote control, but I cannot switch it back on again using the remote control, or by using the on/off button on the front of the box.
To get the DVD recorder back on, I have to unplug it at the mains. But even if I do that, the problem recurs i.e. if I switch the DVD recorder off again, it won�t come back on unless I unplug it and start all over again.

The +5VSB supply is missing or unstable. When the unit is plugged, this voltage branch comes back to life long enough to power the standby circuit (that includes the power switch), so you can then turn it on. After powering it on, this voltage should normally be on as long as the unit is plugged in, but it drops or goes to a lower voltage; you have turned on the recorder at that point, so the +5VSB is not as relevant as the main +5V line. Like any electronic equipment, electrolytic capacitors in the power supply standby voltage filter stage may have become defective and need replacement. The sudden surge of current when plugging the unit in is enough to make them live for a minute or two, but that's all.

Also, when the DVD recorder power does come on after I plug it in again, input select is now defaulting to L1 instead of AV, and I have to manually select AV to get a television picture.

Something as sophisticated as a Sony DVD recorder will have some back-up source in its power supply to remember your settings (and may or may not have anything to do with the problem above). This can either be an internal coin battery, or more commonly, a super capacitor (one Farad value or the likes). The capacitance is so big it behaves more like a battery than a capacitor, but just the same, it dies sometime, and has to be replaced. So there. If I was in front of you now, and the causes are indeed what I have described, I'd gladly do all of this for you free; you buy the components.

When I was living in Saudi Arabia, I repaired stuff like these for friends et al. One common super capacitor brand was Tadiran, and of that I encountered, they were all made in Israel. I liked to point this out to the rabidly anti-Israeli owners to get their goat nyahahahahaha