I have a Sony CCD-FX620 camcorder that seems to work perfectly save one
problem... it likes generic "OH NO EJECT THE TAPE" errors. In VTR mode, it
usually works fine, except occasionally (especially when rewinding or fast-
forwarding) it stops and flashes the eject icon at me until I turn the
thing off and eject, and sometimes it doesn't even entirely eject; I can
hear it lifting the tape off the drum but it does not open the door and it
is necessary to disconnect the power and reconnect it before it will eject.

Then when I am in recording mode, it more often than not starts beeping and
telling me to eject the tape as soon as I close the tape door (before the
tape carriage thing slides back down into the camera). Occasionally if I
push on the tape door a little bit this stops and I can record, but then it
usually gets mad next time I move the camera around and does the same thing
again. Grr. The way I close the door seems to affect it, too: even pressure
on both of the top corners while closing slowly but with a few seconds of
very much pressure after it's latched tends to reduce the frequency of the
problem.

Any ideas on how I might go about fixing this thing?

I have seen this same problem on two Sony camcorders. The symptom starts with
the camcorder wanting to tell you to remove the tape for some unkown reason.
You take it out, put it back and things seem fine for a while. Later, the motor
spins up like crazy when you load a tape and you think it is going to explode.
Later it simply stops recording even though the motor is running and the tape is
moving.

I've been told the problem is simply age. The camcorder's electronics are very
fussy and some of the components drift in value and the thing basically goes out
of range of its operating capabilities. The feedback loops go out of lock and
it simply stops functioning properly.

Some claim this is ****-poor design by Sony ... I might agree. Mechanically the
unit is sound and has maybe 7 years of use on it, but less than 100 hours total
run time. It dies because it gets confused with itself. Not good.

It will cost between $100-$200 to fix it. Not worth it. My recommendation ...
go buy a Sony TRV240, 350, 460, or 480 digital-8 camcorder (which will play your
old 8mm tapes) and move everything to DVD on your computer. I make this sound
simple, but it will take a good bit of time depending on how much you want to
mess around.

I have an fx620 myself and like it alot. It is now a battery uncharger.



On 1/28/05 6:58 PM, tgies wrote:
I have a Sony CCD-FX620 camcorder that seems to work perfectly save one
problem... it likes generic "OH NO EJECT THE TAPE" errors. In VTR mode, it
usually works fine, except occasionally (especially when rewinding or fast-
forwarding) it stops and flashes the eject icon at me until I turn the
thing off and eject, and sometimes it doesn't even entirely eject; I can
hear it lifting the tape off the drum but it does not open the door and it
is necessary to disconnect the power and reconnect it before it will eject.

Then when I am in recording mode, it more often than not starts beeping and
telling me to eject the tape as soon as I close the tape door (before the
tape carriage thing slides back down into the camera). Occasionally if I
push on the tape door a little bit this stops and I can record, but then it
usually gets mad next time I move the camera around and does the same thing
again. Grr. The way I close the door seems to affect it, too: even pressure
on both of the top corners while closing slowly but with a few seconds of
very much pressure after it's latched tends to reduce the frequency of the
problem.

Any ideas on how I might go about fixing this thing?