Sony RDRHXD860 Dirty Disc Error Message

[farnsbarns1]

I have owned a SONY RDRHXD860 for about a year. On the whole I am pleased with it although it is not perfect.

From time to time a recording will fail and the machine will display the legend 'Disc Dirty'.

To correct the problem I keep my finger on the off button on the machine for a long time (10-15 seconds) which causes the machine to shut down fully (you can hear the hard disc whine power down to become silent) keeping my finger pressing down firmly all the time until the machine automatically restarts itself. At this point I lift my finger. The machine powers up, then turns itself of again automatically. Once the machine has become silent again I turn it on again, this time using the remote control. The machine boots up again and this time stays on.

This corrects the 'Disc Dirty' problem and allows new recordings to take place. Leaving the machine switched on for extended periods and carrying out heavy editing and erasing sessions tends to increase the risk of this happening.

Is there something more permanent I can do to stop this happening again?