Canon Elura sound recording problem

[dhowlan]

I have a Canon Elura 100 that worked fine until recently. During the last tape or so, the recorded sound started getting lower and lower until now it is almost silent. I tried an auxiliary microphone, but no different. I pulled both of the batteries to reset. Tried a cleaning tape. No different. I was astonished when I put a very old tape in and heard how loud it used to record. Sound is the same in the camera or through the outputs to the TV. Any ideas? Next step is send it to Canon, which I would like to avoid if possible.

Thanks,
Daryl