I'm having trouble with a Mitsubishi HS-u53 VCR. For the
past couple months, sometimes when putting a tape in the
VCR, the VCR would shut off. After powering it back on, the
tape would be ejected. Pushing the tape back in would
usually work and the VCR would play. Sometimes the VCR
would shut down again, but powering it back on and pushing
the tape back in would work and the tape would play. Last
week was watching a tape, and the VCR shut off. Turned VCR
on, after a couple seconds it shut off. After trying this 3
or 4 times, the tape ejected from the VCR. Now when I try
to play a tape, it plays, but the picture jerks up and down
and about every 5 seconds the picture disappears and all
that's on the screen is static. Also, the data counter
stays at zero. The idler assembly had to be replaced about
7 years ago, I thought maybe it was giving me trouble again
(although the last time, tapes wouldn't play at all), so I
opened up the VCR to check, but the idler appears fine. I
can't see anything else that appears broken (I didn't really
look too closely, though). Anyone have any thoughts on what
might be causing this?