My VCR is being stupid. I’m hoping the dependable SDMB crowd can give me some advice on how to fix it.
Firstly, with the VCR off and no casette in, the casette tray is stuck raised up above the lip of the insertion slot (as though it were ejecting).
When you power the device on, it emits a weird sort of squeaky noise and the tray pushes out…as if it were ejecting a tape. The power then shuts off.
Sometimes if I time it just right I can push a tape in during the above power on routine. It accepts the tape, drops it down, but then immediately ejects it again. Once again the power shuts off and the tray returns to its raised-stuck position.
Its a 2 - 3 year old 4 head Memorex VCR and I quite like it. I’m electrically inclined so I can probably do the repairs myself, if I have some instruction.
(PS. Yes, I’ve read the Sam Goldwasser repair FAQ but it doesn’t seem to reflect any of the problems I’m having)
VCR’s aren’t expensive, go ahead and go to town on it. I’d check for micro switches and binding parts, maybe you got a foreign object stuck in it. Go to Radio Shack and get a can of TV tuner cleaner and hose it down. When you give up just go and buy a new one.
What herman_and_bill sez. If you take the cover off, you should be able to see what the problem is. Find a tape you don’t care about and give it a few tries. You’ll probably find that everything in it is made of cheap tin and plastic, so don’t be afraid to mess with something if you think it’ll help. Not much of it is really “precision” stuff.
I knew a guy who used to fix VCRs and he r eferred to this as “short-cycling” (although that may not be the technical term). There’s a sensor usually located under the carriage mechanism (read: PITA to get to) that can get dirty and make the VCR think it has a tape in the carriage when there isn’t and not when there is. I can’t remember the exact name of the part, but it usually runs no more than $10. As I said, it’s a royal pain to get to. If you can get your hands on a repair manual (which can cost as much as a new VCR) you could probably figure it out. If you’re not mechinically inclined (like me) you can try to have it repaired by a tech, but, again, it’ll cost you as much as a new unit.
Do you have young children? Sometimes they put cards or coins in things like VCRs. Also a piece of tape or a sticker may have been left behind in the machine, gumming up the works.
Check the belts (if it has any). It wouldn’t be unusual for a belt to wear out after 3 years.
As others have said, make sure the optical sensors are clean.
Check mechanical parts - is there old lubricant that has dried up or turned into paste? You could clean it up with alcohol & q-tips and apply a little 3-in-1. Keep lubricants away from rubber parts.
This may be too obvious-- make sure you’re using a known good cassette to test it.
If this is a consumer-grade unit (e.g. you bought it at a normal store), there are few things that can be done to “repair” it - modern machines are designed to be thrown out after a couple of years.
But, anyway -
was it ejecting tapes when finished re-winding them?
If so, it might be a faulty light source and/or sensor (tapes have clear leaders - the machine shines a light through it to detect end-of-tape)
If not, I have no ideas, but would look at the eject mechanism to see if something is jamming/tripping it.
Think of it as free play - even if you can’t get it to work, you’ve lost nothing by looking around - and you’ll get familiar with the innards of a tape player - all VHS machines use pretty much the same mechanism.
But no model number is given. I saw one of these doing something like this & I opened it up & there wasn’t anything you could do in it so I told them to get another one. It was cheap, like $59 at BB rental stores…
A few years back, I had a 4-head JVC unit that behaved much as the OP describes. (One of the ex’s kids had attempted to put a tape in backwards – with a hammer, I think…) JVC was more than willing to send me a service manual – for $50. The local shop was willing to tackle it too, for their usual hourly fees, plus parts, plus I had to buy THEM the $50 manual.
As handy points out, you can throw in another sawbuck or two and have a brand new VCR, so why bother?
Then get an old tape, open the thing (small screws around the back, and usually 2 per side).
(UNPLUG!)
with power off, check the tape lowereing mechanism - a 1/4 circle gear on one side of the tape tray - if you can rotate this by hand, you will see how the tape is opened - it is lowered onto a pin which releases the clutch (now you know why you can’t spin the tape as you can an audio cassette) and two guides which pull the tape out of the cassette and around the head. The flap which covers the tape is released and lifter by another mechanism.
What you are looking for is:
What signals the tray to raise
Why is it doing so all the time
The one thing I find particularly confusing is why the power shuts off everytime. It would seem to me the mechanical system would be independent of the power supply.
Some VCRs shut themselves off if they figure their state is too far screwed up for them to fix. (for example, if a tape gets jammed in the tray and reversing doesn’t help).
One thing I forgot to note, you might have to put the cover on to make it work properly, just because light can interfere with some of the sensors. I’m thinking particularly of the end-of-tape one; tripping that could make it want to rewind or eject, neither of which you want happening during other testing.
“Well, I’m a University students so $60 is too much”
Actually, I was saying the old Magnavox was $60, these days you can get them for around $50 at circuit city. Does yours have a display on the front? I have opened dozens of vcrs & these new ones don’t have anything you can do inside.
It’s been some years since I worked on VCR’s but it sound like you have the typical sensor issue. Everything you describe fits the block model of how the VCR works. In short, you apply power to your VCR, life looks good, you insert tape, the VCR takes it, then begins attempting to figure out if it’s got it. That is done by a light, actully an ir-led. there are 2 sensors on the outside of the carriage assembly to “see” (or not see) this light. If the VCR doesn’t have the tape, it begins attempting to eject the tape. It’ll do that for a while, then to protect itself from a jammed tape, turns itself off. (This also alerts the user to a failure) Some VCR’s also wink at you.
So, you have a bad sensor, likely one of the 2 on the outside. (The center one rairly goes bad) As they are LED’s you can test them as a normal diode. Although I’ve used much more, for most VCR repairs, one doesn’t need much more than a soldering iron, screw or nut drivers, and a VOM to fix. Do be very careful on wire placement on reassembly, put em back where the factory put them. One last thing, the carriage assembly is generally removed with 4 screws from the top, then is able to be set to the side, while still being connected electrically to the main unit for testing.
DanV
PS Parts can be had over the net, mcm electronics and arrow electronics come to mind, there should be at least 5 other distributers for these. Or go to your local VCR shop, they will have them laying around, FYI cost is about $4.00 from mcm.
