The deck is on, but tapes suddenly no longer play. I put a tape in and press play or rewind and the counter does not spin. I tried setting the counter to read TC or CTL, I also checked to be sure the tape was good, and that I was not past the content on the tape.

Anyone experience this? Is there a chance it could be clogged heads? Or is it a tape shuttle issue? I purchased the deck used, so I have no warranty.

I would love suggestions for trouble shooting or for reputable repair shops.


Thanks,

Marion

There is a chance it could be clogged heads, try and clean them the right way not with a head cleaning tape but with cleaning swabs and denatured alcohol.

It's a miracle. I was sure it would be the tape transport mechanism, but I cleaned the heads and that did it.

My guess is that the last owner used JVC tapes and I have been using Sony and that caused the clog.

I have put every brand of tape known to man in my HD50 deck
(used for capturing in one of my edit suites)

I have not had that particular issue, but I have needed to clean
the heads only once when someone brought in a tape that
was dirty.

Glad you got your deck working, IMO mini DV tapes are very flakey in any brand. You need to keep the heads clean and you really can't re-use tapes. I have gotten to the point where I will run a head cleaning tape for 5-10 seconds before every job. Its not great for the heads but ive had the heads clog up during too many jobs.