William Sommerwerck wrote in message
...
Everything works but occasionally it stops recording about
15 minutes short of programmed time. The clock keeps the
correct time and the tape is new.
It never fails on playback.

My first VCR, circa 1981, had a timer problem connected with an
incorrectly
designed chip. If you set it to (say) start recording at 11:30PM and stop
at
1:00AM, it would often quit at midnight.


So a divide by zero / year 2000 type problem with that one. I would have set
the clock 12 hours out on that one, assuming only recording over midnight
and never noon
Perhaps the OP should take a careful note of times , assuming there is a
timecode recorded , then see if there is a consistency in the drop out times
at recording.