I think I might have toasted a/some transistor/s last night. I
dropped a test probe into my tape deck, and saw sparks. I put it back
together to check everything and the transport motor was running
slow. In the power inverter there is a blueish looking 2N1542, and
some strange metallic crystal deposits on the inside of the case
around this transistor. The transistors in the inverter check good.
They both have a lower forward bias voltage .18V, but I am assuming
that this is due to the fact that it is either a power transistor or a
Germanium transistor. However, I have had transistors check good with
on the diode setting of my DVM and they actually turned out to be
bad. Any advice?

Thanks,
Chris KQ6UP