On Jul 28, 9:37 pm, Hy wrote:
I have an old Magnavox VCR (model VR9640AT01, mfr date 12-4-1987),
which shut off while playing a tape.

When I powered it back on, it made noises for exactly 4 seconds, and
then shut off again. None of the buttons (Eject, Play, etc.,) work!

To see what was happening, I removed the casing, plugged it in, and
powered it on. It was REWINDING for 4 secs before shutting off.

When I kept my finger on the Power button, it rewound, stopped,
rewound, stopped -- until it got to the beginning of the tape. Now,
when I press the Power button it TRIES to rewind and shuts off.

Any ideas? Or, are the internal electronics kaput and need a
technician?

our 19 year old magnavox VR2032 is still going strong. it has had a
few anomalies over the years. each was solved by reseating
(unplugging
and replugging) the ribbon cables, about 30 in all.

with the cover off, first try reseating all visible ribbon cables, if
that doesn't
help, open 'er up and reseat all of them.