Lack of support for Sony cd/sacd/dvd products in UK

[anjump123]

Hi, first time poster with a sad tale of woe!

I'm having no joy at all with Sony UK and their so called service centres! 
I've got a sony DVP-ns9100es dvd/sacd/cd player 

Recently it stopped playing any discs. I spoke to various "technicians" who suggested that I try the initialisation step which didn't work and suggesting it was a failed laser etc.
I tracked down the fault to a broken ribbon cable connecting the laser to the drive unit. Having replaced this the player would play cds but nothing else. The cd and dvd laser work, the focussing mechanism works, etc.

Long and short of the story is that I now need someone with the reference discs: 


DVD reference disc:
Single Layer
TDV-520CS0 (J-2501-236-A) (NTSC) or
HLX-503 (J-6090-069-A) (NTSC) or
HLX-504 (J-6090-088-A) (NTSC)
Dual Layer
TDV-540C (J-2501-235-A) (NTSC, Opposite) or
HLX-501 (J-6090-071-A) (NTSC) or
HLX-505 (J-6090-089-A) (NTSC)
Note: Use the NTSC test disc also for PAL model.
CD reference disc:
LUV-P01 (4-999-032-01) or
YEDS-18 (3-702-101-01) or
PATD-012 (4-225-203-01) 

Simple, you would think.......Having spent months talking to the customer service centre in London, phoning loads of "service centres" and explaining at length to their "engineers" what they needed to do! I almost invariably got the response never heard of that, what are reference discs, what are they for, and even we change the lasers and don't use them!! We only deal with TVs nowadays.....

The only service centre who knew what I was talking about was an older time served engineer (actually he was one of the founders of Armstrong) who said they used to hire the discs from Pacifica and return them but that was no longer available. 

Sony customer services in london have washed their hands of the problem saying it was up to their service centres if they wanted to help me or not! 

The discs are apparently are still available from the sont parts service but are so expensive that no service centre wants to spend the money as they will be rarely used! So Sony have the item I need but no use to man nor beast as they are just gathering dust on some forgotten shelf! 

Sony appear to have a record on not supporting it's high end products,

So I now have a very expensive brick or door stop unless I can find someone with the discs! 

Does anyone know of anyone with these discs in the UK? If so please contact me.

Moral of the story seems to be don't buy high end Sony products if you are planning to keep them for more the a few years as they will no longer support or service them. 

[Anonymous]

Hi anjump123, 

Welcome to the Community. 

I'm sorry to read about the difficulties you encountered while trying to source these reference disks for your device.

Please be informed we have escalated this and someone will get back to you shortly. 

[cass_n]

Hi @anjump123,

I have checked this with one of our product experts for you, who advised that your player ideally needs to be checked by a professional engineer.

If it was just the ribbon cable that had broken, then it would begin to work again after replacement (in theory). So this suggests that there is something else wrong with the product, which needs to be diagnosed first (and it might be that the discs are not actually needed).

If you are able to get the product looked at by a Repair Centre, I think that would be your best course of action.

Cheers,

C

[anjump123]

Ok, perfectly wiling to do that. 

Can you provide me details of a sony repair centre within travelling distance of  north london willing to take on the work and has the discs if they can't find any other problem or need to replace the laser. 

Thtat is what I tried to do and couldn't find any service centre willing or familiar with old sacd players.except one and he concurred with my conclusion but couldn't borrow the discs as he used to form pacifica.  

[cass_n]

I have escalated your post for you, so someone from Support should be in touch soon and will be able to help you with this.  Cheers, C

[anjump123]

No reeponse except for a request  ot accept any of the replies as an accepted solutiion which it isn't.

[anjump123]

Thanks but the email I received just gave the names of two service agents I had already approached. 

One Armsrong HiFi was the one who understood the issue but could no longer borrow the discs. The other didn't know.

It would be very helpful to find a way to get the discs to Armstrong then take my player to them and see if it's just the setting up or whether there is some further issue needing replacement of the laser. 

[cass_n]

Will neither of the service agents agree to take at look your product and diagnose the problem first (as it might be that the discs are not even needed)?

I have tried to find out more about the discs for you, but I don't think they are available anymore.