Simon Richardson wrote:
MY VCR is playing up ! Its been working fine for years (this model was
made in 1991 !) what happens is that when a tape is inserted the
machine does one of three things.
1. plays the tape, but only displays maybe 1-2 seconds of film on the
TV, (with no sound) and then returns to the blue screen. It then might
stop playing, but then won't do anything else, only let me eject the
tape or switch the unit off.
2. plays the tape, but the counter won't advance past 00 00000, the
tape is being spooled, but again, only a second or so of film, and
then blue screen.
3. tape will play, (as before) but won't rewind or fast forward at the
correct speed, just very slowly.

You might want to check the P5 lever, this is a spring loaded lever that
pulls the tape toward the audio/sync heads on the RHS of the cassette.
It should snap back into place when you try to move it by hand. If it is
very heavy to move, the grease is dried out. In that case you need to
take it off, clean it with alcohol and apply some new grease.

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Met vriendelijke groet,

Maarten Bakker.