Sony's NW-HD5 having button-cracking issues?
By Ryan Block 
posted Jul 4th 2005 10:14AM
posted Jul 4th 2005 10:14AM
Ok, we know it's not the end of the world, like, say, the hard drive crashing issues that convinced a lot of people
not to buy a Rio Karma, but it might appear according to the AVForums boards that a sizeable number of
Sony HD-NW5 users are experiencing some pretty severe
button cracking issues on their purdy new device—sometimes as early as a couple hours out of the box. Is Sony going to
do anything about it? Well, we hope when they see it on Engadget they will—but feel free to fill out the
HD5-button cracking log anyway.
[Thanks, Ellis]
The more and more I look at the SONY Mp3 players that are competing with the success of Ipods, the more and more I believe that they need to hire me for their design team.
I would have never let something like this slip out onto the market with such an obvious problem. Furthermore, I would have designed it with WMPlayer compatible firmware so that you could nix the ridiculousness that is Sonicstage.
It's like my Sony Ericsson P900 - designed so the flip cracks the case hard enough that it will chip the case after so many flips. Seen this happen a number of times. It's an obvious design flaw that could be so easily solved!
Bah. Replacing the hard drive and the scroll wheel on my Rio Karma just solidified my possesion over what I bought. In other words, it made my mp3 player 'mine.'
Bad Engineering always is the downfall of technology. Nowadays, it makes you wonder if they extensively used a prototype before putting it on the market.
Bad Engineering always is the downfall of technology.
---
it's called cost-cutting, not bad engineering. they went cheap and got busted.
I think the intial stock of HD5's were cheaply built. I believe Sony's beginning a recall of some of those units.
just a typical sony product. look at the case for the ps2. its made out of cheap plastic. ive had mine for just over a year and it is already dying
Reminds me of the broken square button on the PSP. Great job Sony, again.
This reminds me of my old Sony VAIO notebook back in '99. The hinges broke, then the rest. Quality has been slipping for years (ten years at least).
I sort of wish that the solid build quality remained the same (1970s, '80s); but progressing from that. I've had an old Trinitron (1983) that's beat up, and it still works; comparing to my neighbor's Trinitron Wega, which conked out in six months after buying it last year.
I was getting ready to buy one of these... so many attractive features (except SonicStage, although I was pleased to read the NW-HD5 can be used as a mass storage device). Then I saw this and remembered why I was so frustrated with Sony.
While in Japan in '98, I bought one of their top-of-the-line CD walkmans. Worked beautifully for about a year, then suddenly the buttons started malfunctioning and the display went screwy. Within 2 weeks it was dead. Only thing I can figure is that the cheap plastic ribbon connecting the electronics on the two halves cracked somewhere. Probably replaceable, but why should I have to do that after a year?
Sony has been coasting on their name for too long now; quality control is obviously not a priority.
Read about cracking buttons before I bought my HD5; thought it was mere heavy-handedness and didn't expect it to happen to me, but 10 days after purchase began noticing cracks in the very same positions as in your photo. It's definitely a design fault. Ironically, I'd recently bought a Sony W7 camera; its rock-solid build quality convinced me to go for the HD5. Very disappointed that Sony could have slipped up on something so basic. The HD5 (mine at least) is made in Malaysia, whereas the W7 camera is made in Japan--that MIGHT just have something to do with it. Another build quality issue is streaks on the metal housing. Also the player has frozen on me three times so far--could only get round it by removing the battery and restarting it.
There are some cool new hacks out for this device.
Now there's a secret configuration menu accessable and a replacement for the annoying SonicStage software.
http://www.syndetics.net/sony-hacks/
I had my silver NW-HD5 for 3 weeks..Took me ages loading all my cd's on..I spent ages shoppping around to find a case for the thing..Sony shops seem to be miffed as to when they are getting stock in...I'm glad I didn't get the remote or case now as my buttons just cracked... The machine itself is top notch..Kills ipod..However this primitive and cheap fault has meant I had to return mine... I simply can't be bothered to load all the songs on again... I've heard that the black versions of the player are less likely to develop this common fault so i'm set to get one... Amazing technology let down by cheap ass manufacturing... Buy it if you can live with the cracks.
I got a black NW-HD5 in August. It's been used a lot with no sign of cracks. I am really pleased with it and it has been problem free so far. Does anyone know where to get a spare battery?
I'm sure I'm stupid and you guys know this already but the auto orient screen function on the NW HD5 does not work the whole time. It only orientates the screen to the correct direction at time of power up and it remains in this orientation until you power down unless you change it manually. Just thought i'd post this as I did not find this information witha google search or from the sony helpline !!! only by accident from a amazon customer review.