After a year of not using my Sony MDS-JB940 Minidisc deck, I had just purchased some blank discs from amazon.co.jp, and I discovered that the deck can no longer play or record. It's an age-related faiure called "Error Code C13".. I had only ever used the home deck as a recorder; to record discs for playback on my portable player (Sony MZ-N420D). Fortunately, I can still play my hundreds of already existing discs on the portable.(though I had to clean battery ooze off the portable player's battery contacts).
As for the non-use of the equipment during the past year, during the pandemic, there were almost no circumstances under which i would use a portable music player. And the increasing price of the blank discs had deterred me from recording any new discs.(It cost $57 after DHL shipping to buy Ten 80 minute "Victor" (AKA JVC) discs from Amazon's Japan site.)
Yes, I also own a portable CD player, but I'm reluctant to risk scratching my CD's by using them on a portable basis. As for my iPOD (160GB), it failed a few years ago, and the iTunes library on my iMAC is corrupted(songs disappeared, but are still listed.Fortunately, I didn't lose the music.It is taken from my CD collection.). As for buying a high resolution portable audio player, I had recently considered buying Sony's $1200 model but while it is ostensibly available, in reality it is out of print and not available. Only a functionally identical $3200 gold plated version is available. The Sony players' strong point is that its system of loading music into the player is MAC-compatable.
I'm not a repairman, so do you guys know of anyone who can repair the MDS-JB940? Buying a used Sony Minidisc deck, would likely yield a unit that is close to failing from the same problem that affects my unit. As i've discovered, electronics products can fail from simply sitting idle, not being used.