RCA VMT395 VCR dead

[Ed in Tx]

I don't recall any Panasonic VCRs re-badged RCA after Panasonic went with the SMPS power supplies. By then the RCAs were mostly Hitachi. That VMT395 (which does cross reference to several Hitachi models mechanical parts) pretty sure has a linear power supply with a power transformer. Then somewhere about 1988 RCA started selling RCA-badged Samsung VCRs with SMPS that failed like crazy.

The VMT395 could be dead because a capacitor is open that taps the 60 Hz line as a reference for the clock, and with no clock reference, can appear dead. You'd need to check the presence of some voltages to go further.