Can't access sole recordings I have of my late husband's voice

Rosie Brocklehurst

Nov 7, 2025
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Nov 7, 2025
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I have an Olympus digital voice recorder that is over a decade old. It is Vn741Pc and I can’t get it to work although I did at one point this week, but it seems my effort at repair has not lasted. The problem was I foolishly left batteries in that leaked. I cleaned it up following a repair advice and using white vinegar which I watched with technicians giving advice on You Tube and then it did not work immediately but when I used a hairdryer to dry out the vinegar, and put fresh batteries in it did come alive!. I took the new batteries out and have just gone back to it hoping to save all the recordings of my husband’s voice that it contains to a computer, but it does not work at all. So goodness knows why as it did come alive and seemed to be working at one point.
The urgency and pain this is causing me is important because my husband Paul who was a wonderful man, a teacher, with a rich deep voice, died within 18 days of an unexpected diagnosis of pancreatic cancer, on August 5th. I had not known he would die so soon, as we were given 6 months for him to live. I had thought I had time to record his voice but that was not the case. Then a few weeks after he died, I remembered the digital recorder I had bought when Paul did an introduction at the Rye Arts festival 2017 about the Shakespeare troupe who had gone there in 1597. He had made many attempts to practice his introduction to a presentation about it and there were 20 voice recordings on the Olympus. There was also a long conversation with his Aunt going over family history.
I had hoped to be able to transfer the recordings to my computer and have downloaded the instruction manual to try and do that but then, of course the Olympus does not seem to want to work.
 

crutschow

May 7, 2021
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May 7, 2021
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So it turns on but doesn't access the recordings?
Can you record any new sounds and play them back?
 

Delta Prime

Jul 29, 2020
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2,987
I’m gonna need the model number of your Olympus digital voice recorder
Please thank you
 

Martaine2005

May 12, 2015
5,276
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May 12, 2015
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5,276
It’s still a bad connection due to the corrosion.
You need to take it apart and clean the PCB, especially around the battery connector/springs. Possibly PCB trace repair too.
Have you got a friend who is handy with a soldering iron?.
 
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