help - my JVC 30K is eating evry tape i put in it!

[oleus]

i was using some Fuji 160 svhs tapes (usually reliable), none of which seemed to want to record anything properly. well, ever since then, my 30K seems to get tapes stuck inside of it every time i put one in. It tries to eject but never fully comes out, i have to pull it out, tearing the tape.

I would assume it would be cheaper to buy a used 30K off of ebay instead of getting this fixed.

Any home-remedy for this type of problem? i have a JVC 5U that is working fine so i might not ever replace it, but it was my dvhs deck for my upstairs setup.

on another note, it rarely could sync up to my motorola 6412 HD DVR which is why i didn't use it much for recording, just for playback. firewire recording with the 30K to my cable box would usually result in my cable box crashing (not so with my 5U).

thanks

[shugazer9]

I assume youve been using a head cleaning tape. This needs to be done fairly frequently with these decks. The Sony cleaning tape is the preferred brand.

[oleus]

yep, been using the Sony head cleaner since day 1. this batch of Fuji tapes seems to have killed my 30K (they wouldn't record on my 5U either, but didn't kill that deck...)

[gridleak]

Any brand of tape can have an occasional bad cassette. I've seen some new cassettes warped to the point where they wouldn't load properly, and others with pieces of broken plastic rattling around inside. For whatever reason, a bad tape has screwed up the mechanical timing of the cassette loading mechanism.

There are a few things you could try that won't do more harm than good.

1) Take the lid off (a screw on each side and maybe one or two on the back edge). Once the screws are out just lift it slightly and slide it back. Look for junk and debris that shouldn't be there, particularly in the area where the cassette would normally sit when fully loaded. Look for pieces of tape wrapped around shafts or rollers in the tape path. Make sure the cylinder (drum) spins freely (don't touch the outer surface, just the top edge).

2) If you don't find anything obvious, then make a "tapeless" cassette. Open up one of your ruined cassettes and yank out the tape spools and other bits and pieces (even the front door) and put it back together. Sometimes (and I do mean only sometimes) you can re-time the loading mechanism by sticking in a tapeless cassette and letting go thru the complete cycle. It wont stay loaded because the machine will notice there's no tape (photo cells), but it will do a nearly complete cycle.

3) If the tapeless cassette still hangs up on the way out, then you can go one step further by using some masking tape to block the light path thru the big hollow center post in the cassette. Now the fake cassette will stay in and the machine will complete the entire cycle. Hopefully you'll hear a nice snapping sound and the timing will be back to normal.

[shugazer9]

I just got a good deal on some Fuji120s on ebay- 20 shipped for $35. I think it may be a problem with longer length tapes in general as i noticed more glitches with the 160s i used.

[johnd393]

This recently happened to me. I let my hd1100u set unused for weeks with a tape in it. When I finally tried to eject the tape it wouldn't eject fully. I opened up the VCR and got the tape out but when it would try to load a tape as soon as the tape came in contact with the rotating head drum it would stick to it and start wrapping around it. I cleaned it and than it was ok. Apparantly the tape that was in it for weeks must have sagged and came in contact with some grease. The grease got on the head and caused the tape to stick to it. I used a paper towel and alcohol to clean it. I wouldn't recommend that to others but it works for me.
John