Sony RDR-HX725 Hard drive replacement

[tarikm]

Does anybody know how to go in the service menu on an sony RDR HX980??

[orsetto]

Service mode in the RDR-HX*80 series is entered using a separate "service remote." Unlike the the earlier RDR-HX*10 thru *50 models, the RDR-HX*70, *80, and *90 models are not "100% Sony" designs using the older Sony interface (which let you enter service mode using buttons on the front panel and the normal remote). The *70, *80, and *90 Sonys were designed in collaboration with Pioneer, so they use the Pioneer interface (which requires the dedicated Service Remote and sometimes a Service DVD as well).

Pioneer was very consistent about this over the years, but the Sony versions can vary from model to model depending on the country they were sold in. Extensive info on service mode for these Sonys can be found here and here. The original Sony/Pioneer service remotes are no longer made or sold, but "clones" of it are available from various web dealers who specialize in hard-to-find remotes. The price is usually 30 Euros approx.

[tarikm]

could you please give me a site where I can find the service remote? paying around 30 euros is better then buying a new one from 200-250 euro's while this one is still working also except the hdd. The recorder is bought and used in Belgium

[orsetto]

I don't have link to a remote vendor in EU. You would need to ask in more EU-centric Sony forums like the ones I posted earlier. What you need is a generic clone of either the Pioneer GGF1381 or Sony J6090203A remotes. There are several vendors in North America, you could try contacting them regarding their shipping costs to Belgium:

The actual Sony remote is still available here for $70 (US).

The same dealer sells a generic clone of the Sony here for $22 (US)

Another dealer sells a clone of the Pioneer version here for $52 (US)

That same dealer sells the same remote on eBay here for $38 (US).

If these dealers will not ship to Belgium directly, perhaps you have a friend or relative in USA/Canada who could order it and then re-ship it to you themselves.

My personal recommendation among these would be the generic Pioneer clone. I have used one since 2005 and it has proved extremely reliable. I also own the original Sony service remote, and have found it oddly unreliable (the recorders do not always respond to it as expected).

Certain inexpensive multifunction remotes using the JP1 design can be programmed to emulate the Sony/Pioneer service remote. For suggestions, try contacting member mdavej at AVS forum.

[tarikm]

Hmm the only one in europe that I can find is the original sony, but this one is at least 50 euro's... To be honnest, I need this remote control only once to format my hdd, unfortunetly I don't know anyone with this kind of remote and only the original sony and the clone can be shipped to Belgium. Does it really matter then if it's the pioneer or the sony? I also don't have anybody in the US or Canada who could do this for me.

[orsetto]

If you can get the Sony clone shipped to Belgium, I'd suggest that one. The clones seem to work better than the originals I've tried, no idea why. There's no significant difference between the Pioneer and Sony remotes (clone or original) other than ergonomics: the Sony tries to be more clever with different sized buttons but doesn't actually work as well as the Pioneer which has a confusing array of same-sized buttons. They all send out the same signals, and for Sony recorders I believe you'd only use the ESC and P.RUN buttons anyway.

You should be able to resell the remote to another Sony owner who needs one: given this was the most popular series of DVD/HDD recorder in Europe, there are plenty of owners still using them. You could advertise it on one of the EU-centric AV Forums, or someplace like eBay.de or eBay.uk. But if you can afford to keep it, just keep it: if you hold onto your Sony recorder for several more years, you might need it again. Better to have a tool than not.

[tarikm]

Thanks orsetto for all the information! Now I know everything!

I will see what the cheapest option is and buy it, after I will keep it for my self, like you said i'll maybe need it again for the same or another DVD recorder, you never know. thx again!

[tarikm]

Hello orsetto!

Finally i recieved my sony service remote, but I cannot find anywhere exactly how to use it. Did you found this written out somewhere maybe? I have looked already in the 2 topics you gave me and posted in one also but didn't get no reactions until now.

Thanks in advance

[orsetto]

The official Sony service manual for your RDR-HX980 can be downloaded here. You will see an index picture showing the first page of the manual: scroll down, and just below this image a link should appear that reads Get Manual. Click on it to download the manual.

BE VERY CAREFUL when using the service remote: it is very easy to ruin your recorder if you press the wrong buttons at the wrong time! The instructions in the service manual can be frustratingly unclear, even to those who are familiar with such repairs. Also, note that the Sony recorders use a somewhat different service interface than their Pioneer twins: the hardware is similar, the user interface is similar, but service mode operations that work for Pioneers DO NOT always work the same way in the Sonys (for example, the Sonys do not usually require the service ID data disc that is necessary with the Pioneers). And, some of the service remote procedures are different.

Perhaps you should tell us exactly why you wanted to enter service mode on your HX980? Then we could point you to the proper instructions for that particular repair task.

[tarikm]

Thanks again orsetto!

I have downloaded the service manual and will see tomorrow if I can make something out of it and let you know. Thanks a lot!

edit:

I managed to format my hard drive, thanks to the service manual you gave me orsetto! The recorders works smoothly now and is like new!

Thanks a lot orsetto for your effort!

[janhough]

Hello All,
I have a faulty HDD on my rdr-hx710. The drive seems to be turning, so I am not sure what exactly the problem with it is. I REALLY would like to try to keep my existing recordings. What options do I have? I do have a service manual.
Thanks
Jan

[orsetto]

I'm afraid there's nothing you can do with a faltering HDD in the RDR-HX510, 710 or 910 aside from erase/reformat. These models don't seem to have any option (in either user or service mode) to "repair" or "optimize" the HDD should it behave strangely. Service mode offers a couple of "tests" which accomplish nothing beyond confirming whether the HDD might be re-usable after erasing, or is trash that should be discarded immediately. Since one could just as easily figure this out by trying to erase the HDD in user mode, there doesn't seem much point dropping into service mode. If the HDD won't play or dub any videos at all no matter what you try, the recordings on it may never be retrievable. You could start fresh by reformatting the HDD (press and hold the HDD button on your 710 front panel for more than ten seconds). Or, remove the HDD and set it aside in hopes someone eventually posts an easy method to salvage the files. Buy a replacement HDD for the 710, and going forward try to burn DVDs more frequently so you aren't left with stranded recordings again. Reports at UK AVForums suggest the Sony x10 series doesn't handle corrupted HDDs gracefully: even a re-format often leads to repeated problems, so a new HDD may be the best solution.

Removing the HDD and connecting it to a PC isn't usually practical, as Windows won't be able to read or repair it. The file system is a proprietary variation of Linux, so a handful of determined geeks have managed to boot their PC into Linux and piece together video files from recorder HDDs. Some have also had success using special file utilities that will run under Windows. But generally, PC file salvage of recorder HDDs is difficult verging on impossible (esp if the HDD has malfunctioned inside the recorder: the recordings may already be damaged). Little to no info has been published re the old (710 and earlier) Sony file system: most Sony salvage threads document the 725 and later models (apparently the earlier units employ a more peculiar mpg scheme).

[janhough]

Thanks orsetto for your most helpful comments. The message is something like HDD ERROR, and the HDD will not start at all in HDD mode. So I was thinking this could theoretically have many causes. The most probable I suppose is that the HDD hardware is faulty. Would it be worth making an exact copy of the platter onto another HDD that does work? There are companies that can do that I believe.

Regarding replacing the HDD, the service manual talks about the following options in service mode:
Hard Disk Check Menu
1) When the key “1” is pressed down, the ID check will be
executed.
2) When the key “2” is pressed down, performance check will be
executed.
3) When the key “3” is pressed down, WRITE ID will be executed.
4) When the key “4” is pressed down, Format will be executed.
5) When the key “9” is pressed down, Factory check will be
executed.
6) When the “RETURN” key is pressed, the monitor display
moves to the menu screen.

This is the monitor display:
<< HDD MODE >>
1) Indicate ID
2) Performance Check
3) Write ID
4) Format
9) Factory Check

What is the ID and how do I use it for a new HDD?
Thanks
Jan

[orsetto]

janhough, since you now say the unit is also displaying "HDD ERR" there is a SMALL chance the "ERR" was caused by a power surge or other electrical glitch, so you MIGHT be able to clear this type of HDD issue using the service mode.

Note: if the service screens don't respond to your remote control, reset the remote to "code 3". To change the remote code, take the remote to another room away from the recorder. Hold down the enter button, then press the 3 button. Hold both buttons down for 7 seconds, then release. Try the remote on the recorder: it should now be recognized and able to operate the service menu. (Upon exiting service mode, the recorder may revert back to whatever code was last set, and the "3" codes that worked in service mode may not work in normal recorder mode. If it does not, do the same as before: try changing the remote control from "3" to "2" or "1").

To try and recover from HDD ERR, put your 710 into service mode.

Go to the HDD Mode screen.

Use the arrow keys on your remote to highlight "3) Write ID" and press the enter button on your remote. If a confirmation box opens asking if you want to "Execute Write ID", highlight "YES" and press Enter again.

Your TV should display "Writing HDD Serial ID..", then (hopefully) "OK". This clears the motherboard PRAM (which might have been corrupted) and "remarries" the HDD to the recorder.

If you get the "OK" on your TV screen, press the power button on the front panel and hold it for at least ten seconds. Your 710 should power off, then turn itself back on to reboot for a few seconds before displaying "Power Off" and switching to standby. At this point the clock display may show all zeros. Press the power button normally, and the unit should turn back on with the usual "Welcome..." display. Try to access the HDD title list, and see if your recordings appear. If so, copy them to DVD asap (and don't forget to finalize each disc). Note you may need to power the unit off and back on a second time if it doesn't get to "Welcome..." on the first try.

If you do NOT get a display of "Writing HDD Serial ID... OK" but get "Writing HDD Serial ID... NG" instead, or you get the "OK" but still can't view your recordings (or still see HDD ERR), the hard drive is probably corrupt and recordings can't be rescued. Don't bother cloning it to a new HDD, as you'll only copy over the corruption, and the 710 file system is nearly impossible to read outside the recorder. You could try repeating the "3) Write ID" procedure again, sometimes it works the second or third time, but don't get your hopes up.

If you opt to replace the HDD, remember the 710 will not recognize capacity larger than what it came with, and will format any new HDD to 160GB.

Install the new HDD, go to service mode, and perform the "3) Write ID" steps. (You should definitely see "Writing HDD Serial ID... OK" with a new HDD: if you still get "NG" and HDD ERR displays, something is wrong with the recorder motherboard and your 710 is seriously broken.)

After you get the "OK", continue to "4) Format" and confirm "YES" if asked.

The front panel will display a "Sectors..." countdown while your TV will show "Formatting HDD..."

When "OK" eventually appears, press Return on your remote twice to get back to the main service screen.

Press the power button on the front panel and hold it for at least ten seconds. Your 710 should power off, then turn itself back on to reboot for a few seconds before displaying "Power Off" and switching to standby. Again, the clock display may show all zeros. Press the power button normally, and the unit should turn back on with the usual "Welcome..." display. Note you may need to power the unit off and back on a second time if it doesn't get to "Welcome..." on the first try.

The new HDD is of course empty, so you won't see any videos in the title screen until you record something.

It is a good idea to do a complete system reset (clock and any other custom settings) after any service mode operations. Remember to reset the remote control code to 1 or 2 (if the recorder doesn't respond to 3 after exiting service mode).

[janhough]

Wow orsetto! That has to be one of the most comprehensive replies I have ever seen. Thank you so much.

I will report back on my progress once I have retrieved my recorder from the (useless) repair shop.

Jan