[YamahaFreak]

Decided to take a chance on a Goodwill VCR yesterday for $10. It has no power, totally dead with a tape inside. I get it home and open it up to discover the power fuse blown. Replaced and connected to my Variac, I got up to about 70 volts AC when smoke appeared from the choke shown in the attached image (L901), and I immediately removed power. Despite smoke I don't think I destroyed the choke, it wasn't open according to my multimeter. Upon closer inspection I had placed a 6 amp fuse in the clip when the original was a 1.6 amp, oops! I applied 12 volts DC to the transport motor to get the tape out. My question now is, where should I look to solve the problem? I assume something in the power supply is shorted. Can I just test components in-circuit with my meter to find the short? Where would be the most likely culprit? (Transistor, capacitor, resistor, etc.)