Keegan Major wrote:

And how did you expect anyone here to know this bit of detail when you
omitted it from your initial post? Not one group member here can read
minds....

I can read his mind easily, insanity for trying to fix a 30+ year old, low
or mid range VHS machine that can be replaced with a $10~$20 one from the
nearest Salvation Army or Goodwill retail store. Probably will be 25 years
newer too.

However I do have a suggestion...

Take it apart and examine the clock board/front panel circuit boards and see
if you can spot something like a cmos battery like you would find on a
computer motherboard. Small (quarter sized but thicker) and probably wrapped
in plastic. It's not a battery but a supercap of sorts (like .5F, half a
farad).

I think (but not sure) those had somewhat of a battery back up for the clock
where if the machine lost power for a while, the clock wouldn't return with
the 12:00 blinking but the correct time instead.

I'd guess if that thing is dead or otherwise shot, it could cause the timer
to malfunction. Who knows, maybe the timer relies on it so it, like the
clock, doesn't get reintialized on power loss.

Dead power source, dead timer.

-bruce