VF80 seized up

  • Thread starter Thread starter armadillo
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armadillo

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I was trying to record something on my VF80 the other day, and when I stopped it to return to the beginning for another take, the thing just seized up and wouldn't do anything. I tried switching it off and starting it up again, but it won't go anywhere beyond the initialization stage, so I can't enter setup to do anything with it. I suspect that I'm going to have to reformat the drive, which is irritating since I'll lose what's already on it, but I'd rather do that than have a machine that doesn't work at all! The problem is ... is there a way to do it? I've checked the manual, but Fostex doesn't appear to have envisioned this problem ...
 
I believe the reformat procedure is in the manual, but I wonder if it's going to help. I'd call service, because if it needs to be fixed without resorting to a reformat, then you wouldn't lose data. Plus, if you can't get past the initialization stage, then I don't know if you can start a format procedure.
 
Yes, that's what I thought ... according to the manual there are all kinds of nifty things you can do once you're in Setup Mode (including getting drive format information, which they recommend you do before calling service!), but I can't get to that stage. I was just wondering if anyone had found some way to bypass the normal startup and initialization procedure.
 
Just an update in case anyone's interested, or ever experiences the same problem ... I took the VF80 to a music store and their tech guy fixed the problem very quickly. It turned out to be physical rather than digital: although I'm very careful to keep the machine covered up, over the past two and a half years enough dust and gunk still managed to get inside to cause the hard disk to stop working; apparently the 'arm' (I guess that's like the needle arm on a gramophone?) simply couldn't read the disk. So the tech cleaned it up, it seems to work fine, and should be OK for at least a while now, though there may come a day when the disk simply needs to be replaced.

He did say that it's a good idea to get this cleaning done regularly, maybe once a year, so I thought it might be worth passing on that advice!
 
Gut feeling, if I were you, I'd do a backup on everything you want to keep, and get a new HardDrive. Just keep it on hand, they're really coming down in price. I'd also invest in a small dust cover (one for a VCR will be big, but they work). Glad to hear the techie fixed it. I've never heard of being able to get inside a HardDrive and clean the armature. I thought these things were supposed to remain sealed, or only be opened in a sealed envirnment. Well done, and many happy hours of recording!
 
billisa said:
Gut feeling, if I were you, I'd do a backup on everything you want to keep, and get a new HardDrive. Just keep it on hand, they're really coming down in price. I'd also invest in a small dust cover (one for a VCR will be big, but they work). Glad to hear the techie fixed it. I've never heard of being able to get inside a HardDrive and clean the armature. I thought these things were supposed to remain sealed, or only be opened in a sealed envirnment. Well done, and many happy hours of recording!
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HI I dont think he cleaned the HD wihtout more equipment.
It must have been something else. Did he mean the CD player?
I would like to know in case it happens here.
Cheers
Kedman
 
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