I was given two VCRs today
 

Today, a woman (who has bad luck with VCRs apparently) gave me two VCRs to look at. One of them is an RCA VR-519. With the cover removed, I plugged it in. It quickly started making a loudish clicking sound. I noticed the main cam seemed to be making that noise, and it looks like its trying to move.

The other VCR is a Symphonic 6300. At first I thought it was dead, but it seems the display just won't light up. I tried putting my test tape in, and it loaded the tape around the drum, but I got no picture on the TV. I was about to give up, but then I realized it might be the tape. So I put a pre recorded tape in, and to my surprise, it started playing! The picture quality isn't that bad for a two head model either.

Would anyone be able to help me fix the clicky RCA, or get the display working on the Symphonic?

Actually I take it back, the Symphonic VCR is pretty bad. The colors are washed out and I see slight color shifting. Edit: The display started working again out of the blue, but I noticed its creasing parts of the tape.

Sounds like it might be the tray that carries the tape when you push it into the unit.... Perhaps its getting stuck or is not aligned properly.....


Good luck with them...... Does she want the units back??

She told me to do whatever with them.

The display stopped working again.

If that's the Samsung made unit I think it is look for a 1uF "start" cap in the power supply. This cap goes south but, won't show until the power is interrupted. Then the PS won't start again.

That assumes the rest of the caps will hold up once the PS starts ("colors shifting", etc.).