Sony DCR-PC120E IEEE 1394 firewire problem

[charbel89]

HI,
I have a sony DCR-PC120E camcorder. The IEEE 1394/ilink/firwire socket appears to be faulty. I was told that to replace it the cost would be £110. And that most likely it is the PCB which would cost £200+ to fix.

I am not convinced it is the PCB becuase when I plug the cable the camera shows DV IN however the computer does not detect the camera. HAving said that the socket on the camcorder appears to be damaged.

the actual IEEE PCB socket costs about £2 or less, however I have not been able to get to that PCB. I took the camcorder to pieces but the only part that I could not get too easily was the PCB.

Does anyone has any ideas on how to get to that PCB? There are a number of screws but I do not want to start removing unnecssary ones. Ideas thgouhts are welcome, also any expert opinions on whether the PCB is damaged? I am assuming it is not becuase it is showing DV-In that means the PCB is detecting the Cable.


Thanks.


Regards


Charbel.

 

[ro63rto]

you're not trying to connect it to an Apple Mac are you? As far as I can remember the PC120 is miniDV which isn't compatible to Apple. Something to do with mpeg4 not being a standard they support...

might be mistaken, wait for more to answer.

 

[Igorian]

Most of the cost is based on the time to disassemble/reassemble. Have a look here for a service manual.

 

[charbel89]

Hi,

Thanks for your reply.


I am not using an apple macintosh. I have a PC with WIndows XP professional installed. The camera was working at some point however I used a damaged cable, which had a faulty pin (out of place) and when I forced it in, it must have damaged my socket, and when I realised what had happened it was too late.

I am guessing that the PCB is not damaged becuase as it stands when I plug the cable I get a message DV IN which means that the cable is being detected by the camera, however due to the damaged pin on the socket, communication can not be established between the camcorder and the PC.


Igorian,
The site you provided sells those CD for £13.00, do you know if they are worth the money? or just some marketing gimmick?

Also the 4 pin PCB socket does anyone knwo where I can buy one of those? The companies I found have a minimum order of £20 which will buy me over 30 sockets and I only need one.

Otherwise I may have to buy them and then sell the rest on eBay .


Thanks for your responses.


Kind regards


Charbel.

 

[Igorian]

Igorian,
The site you provided sells those CD for £13.00, do you know if they are worth the money? or just some marketing gimmick?

Mauritron have been around for years and are (probably) the no. 1 supplier of manuals for this type of kit. I used to get most of our service manuals for TV & video when I was involved in that stuff. The manuals are good and well worth the cash, but of course, you need to be reasonably competant when disassembling/reassembling camera components and only you can answer that.