Quote:
Originally Posted by RetroHacker
The fact the tape is curled/cupped on many of them also seems to indicate that they perhaps were poorly stored.
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All my tapes are like that, so seems to be fairly normal...although mine could have been stored badly at some time - I've had them for years!
I powered my VR2022 up and connected it to a small 8" TV to use as a convenient monitor. It worked, but with noticeable patterning that would certainly have looked worse on a larger display monitor. It did the occasional de-lace and shut down every now and then, but improved the longer it was used. It made the room smell of burnt Rifa capacitor as it warmed up and I then remembered that it blew up four years ago and filled the room with smoke, but I never bothered doing anything about it at the time, due to it being fitted in an awkward place and a bit of a fiddle to get at.
I was quite enjoying playing those old tapes with comedy, period adverts (it's funny how I detest adverts, but quite enjoy seeing the old ones that I used to hate) and "news at ten" from the time, but unfortunately it started at first intermittently going into a 'picture search' type fast forward, but without any actual picture, before finally packing up altogether. It ended up winding uncontrollably, but not fast, to the end of one side of a tape and in the end either broke the tape or perhaps just pulled the end off the spool, I haven't opened the tape case to check yet.
It's gone into a state of no operation of any of the controls, not being able to eject the tape or set the clock, which I seem to think is a known fault condition with these and seems to be a similar state to the other VR2020 machine that I mentioned, so two with the same fault now.
I opened up the machine and as can be seen in one of the pictures below, the cable to one of the lacing arms had come out of its track - now refitted back to how it should be. I had a look at the processor board and the backup battery isn't in too good a shape, but not particularly leaking badly (yet), but I did wonder whether it had leaked and caused any damage to the print and socket etc. There was still 1.7 volts across it with the board removed, so although not in a good state, it's not totally duff. I probably ought to have removed it altogether, as I suspect the machine would still function without it, however, I left it in and put the board back for the time being, there was no leakage damage to the board, picture below.
I decided to open up the mains input socket box while I was at it and remove that blown up Rifa capacitor - picture below. I just unsoldered and removed it for the time being, not replacing it with a new one, as it would be a waste of a capacitor if I eventually scrap the machine - and it'll work just fine without it.
I've put it all back together for the time being, as I don't want bits to get lost or damaged and I've got a lot of other things on the go at the moment. However, if anyone has any ideas on this particular fault condition, I may have another look at it in the future, although I seem to remember there was some thoughts that this particular type of fault could be a main processor chip fault.