Who Has Beta?

[Tom Biddle]

I have 4 Beta decks, 2 working and 2 needing repair: Working: SL-HF360 SuperBeta hi-fi, SL-HFT7 SuperBeta hi-fi (the one with built-in amplifier)... Needing repair: SL-HF 2000 (won't successfully load a tape all the way) and my prize, a SL-HF 2100 which accepts tapes, FFs and REWs with all LED lights working fine but immediately stops whenever I try to PLAY a tape. :-(

[Electronic M]

Originally Posted by Tom Biddle

a SL-HF 2100 which accepts tapes, FFs and REWs with all LED lights working fine but immediately stops whenever I try to PLAY a tape. :-(

Odds are that is a bad surface mount capacitor on the capstan motor board. I have a Sony SuperBeta Non-hifi model that would randomly stop advancing the tape in play mode, then stop (though with the cover off one could 'help' it out of that condition before auto stop occurred). Replacing that surface mount cap fixed that problem, but I should have removed the rotor when I did the soldering....I ended up melting a spot on the plastic edge of the rotor which has magnetic servo control control track on it, and now the video has constant tracking noise from the motor running wrong, built in....I wish I could find another rotor, or a way to fix it....

[Harvestman]

Came home with a Sony SL-5400 from the thrift store today, a $10 investment. Pretty dirty on the outside, but I know better than to pass up an old VTR for cheap.

Opened it up, and it's only mildly clean inside. More importantly, it doesn't do much of anything - it lights up, turns on, and ejects, but doesn't play, FF, or rewind. Bad belts?

Oh - and it's a TANK. Really huge and heavy!