I have an Onkyo TA-RW244 dual cassette deck that's developed a couple
of problems, one of which is very strange. The other day I was
working on my equipment stack and I heard a whirring noise. I knew
none of my components has a fan, so I looked for the source of the
noise and I found that the capstans on deck B were spinning. A few
power cycles revealed that the capstans on deck B now spin anytime
power is applied to the unit, even if it's in standby mode. I then
tried playing a tape to see if this problem affected the use of the
deck. The tape played, but only one channel produced audio, the other
one didn't even register on the built-in level meter. I didn't try
recording anything. Deck A works fine.

Has anyone ever encountered a problem like this? The unit is less
than 4 years old and has been used very lightly. It's only plugged
into a cheap surge protector, but I've never had any surge damage
whatsoever to any other equipment, even items not protected.