Have a Sony CDD-TR81, and have never really used it a lot. Many years ago I
believe I had this same problem and Sony repaired it. Now I take it out
again to use it and similar problems. Really getting tired of this. Do
camcorders go bad if you don't use them much?

It has a lot of snow on the picture when recording. I used a head cleaning
tape and it got rid of 70% of it, after running the head cleaner about 40
seconds, but still lots on snow there. Also it sequels a bit at times when
playing a tape, like the wheels are not lubricated if that actually makes
sense (smile!). Is there a general cleaning type of service that would take
care of problems like this or is it most likely a "costly" not worth getting
it fixed effort??

Also do head cleaning tapes go bad over years. My Sony Head Cleaning tape is
probably 8 years old itself?