On Monday, February 26, 2018 at 1:33:58 PM UTC-5, wrote:
"You were lucky. I'm still throwing out all sorts of worthless electronic parts from VCR days. "

I have seen motor drive ICs go bad, after all they are a power output. End and reel sensors as well. Never a microprocessor. I suspect something in the system control circuit, but the IC last, after all other relevant things are checked.

I can no longer recall the brands they were used in (Akai?), but NEC uPcs in VCRs were problematic. We stocked them. IIRC, the numbers on them had the prefix uPc.