GL2 Remove Cassette Error Fix

[Cosmin Rotaru]

I've seen a sony vx2100 doing the remove tape stuff... They (sony) display a coded message but the behavoiur is the same: you need to take the tape out and put it back again - try working with the cam again...

[Jared Gordon]

Hi all. I run a small production house in the NYC environs. First off, I'd like to thank Cosmin for his advice on this matter. I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one who has had this problem.

That being said, I've found a fix that might work for others. I tried keeping the case open overnight to allow moisture evaporation, and even attempted cleaning the little plastic gear shifter, as Cosmin suggested, with alcohol. These seemed to work for a little bit, but it didn't take long for the error to repeat.

After experimenting a little, I found that in my case, HOLDING DOWN the camera's rewind button gave me 100% satisfactory rewind results. I'm wondering if this will work for other users. As opposed to hitting it once, hold down the rewind button until it reaches where you'd like it to.

Let me know if this helps.

[Jared Gordon]

Above, I mean that you can hold it down while the tape is stopped. Not merely shuttling it manually while there is picture onscreen. Do it as though you'd normally rewind a tape, with the tape already stopped on the blue master screen.

- JMG

[Steven Graham]

Last year I had the Eject Cassette problem with my XM2, I could play, record without problems but attempting to rewind a cassette caused the problem to appear (flickering timecode display and then the Eject Cassette message.)

Soon after the problem first occurred I was attempting to rewind a cassette. I got the Eject Cassette message after which I ejected the cassette. I re-inserted the cassette and attempted to continue rewinding the cassette. The mechanism suddenly started making nasty noises and I stopped rewinding immediately and attempted to eject the cassette. The tape had been chewed and was tangled up in the mechanism. I was on holidays in a remote area and had no possibility of immediate servicing. Very fortunately I was able to very carefully extract the tape from the mechanism without breaking it or the camera. (The tape had very important material on it and luckily only a very small section was damaged.) For the remainder of my holiday, I did not even attempt to rewind tapes in the camera. The play and record functions were still ok.

When I returned home, I had the camera serviced under warranty and have not experienced this problem since.

I would be interested to hear if anyone else has experienced tape damage associated with this 'Eject Cassette' problem.

Regards,
Steven.

[Bill Shore]

Hi all,

I have been combing this site for the last few weeks and have been impressed by all the intelligent questions and informative replies being passed on - without attitude.

I am awaiting my first GL2 in a couple of days, and am feeling a little tentative now, based on this tape transport "Remove Cassette" issue.

I am an enthusiastic video hobbyist, and come from a graphic and audio background. This may be a long shot, but with DAT audio tapes (which are quite similar to Mini DV) - we ran into the same problems with the tape transport mechanisms - they just jammed up and could no longer play. It kind of got around that a workaround was to always first fast forward the tapes until they end; then rewind them fully before using.

I know this is a drag, as far as putting more wear on the unit (it should be built to take it, though), but this solved the issue, at least in the world of DAT. It seemed with audio DAT tapes, some manufacturers just wound the tapes too tight for the transport to deal with. Fast forwarding it before recording just loosened them up a bit - and the problems went away.

Is this worth a shot?

Thanks

- Bill Shore

[Cosmin Rotaru]

Steven, yes, I got the jammed tape stuff...
If you followed my explanation above, and seen the litle clip, you know how it happends...

Bill, some tapes would yield he "remove tape" message sooner than others. Probably those tapes are to hard to rewind. After a while, the tape transport mechanism is not able to rewind any tape.

And yes, I understand this is NOT a GL2/XM2 issue. As I said, I saw it on a VX2100. And now you're reporting that it is also happening on DAT.

True, some mechanisms are better than others.


Some of you, long enough in miniDV, do not remember the VHS era. VHS tapes jam, too. Its just that the VCRs in our homes do not display "remove tape" messages.

[Steven Graham]

Cosmin, thanks for your reply and for all your suggestions and explanations. Just a coincidence, I was on Holiday in Romania when I first had this 'Eject Cassette problem! It is a very beautiful country.
Regards,
Steven.

[Cosmin Rotaru]

It is never a coincidence! :) :) :)

off topic: what where you doing here?! Anyway, I'm glad you liked my country! (wanna switch? :) ).

[Steven Graham]

Hello Cosmin, I was on holiday last year in Romania (with my XM2!). I spent about 4 weeks travelling in most parts of the country. The roads were a little bit bumpy but it was very nice. The country is very beautiful and the peope are very friendly. I would love to come back to Romania.
Regards, Steven.

[Jesse Gutierrez]

I called up Canon yesterday and asked if anything is being done about the Cassette problem and the service tech told me that the problem is caused by the tape being left in the recorder. That the tape will press against the pinchers, capstan, rollers or whatever out of alignment. That was a pretty flaky excuse or it's pretty flaky quality. So, I guess it shouldn't be left in overnight. Delicate stuff. I was also told that to avoid the problem, the heads should be cleaned about every 20~30 hrs. Doesn't that sounds excessive. Aren't the tape cleaners abrasive.

I have a Canon Elan IIe film camera with three lenses including a 70-200L. I also have the 1.4X TC to go with the L lens and the pictures come out Sharp. That L lens is a hardy piece of equipment. So, I was seriously considering buying a GL2 but after looking around on the web I'm having second thoughts. I don't know, maybe I might still get one. I don' know how many bad units there are to the good ones.

At this time, there are 71 reports of Canon cassette problems over at Rick's site http://mysite.verizon.net/resohb20/c...tatistics.html. 72 if you include Unk. I don't know of any Unk except for what Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle, used to tell his little monkey buddy "Unk, Nikima. Unk." in the mid 70's Saturday morning cartoons. Five of those reports go to GL2 owners.

[Rick Bernagozzi]

Jesse,
The UNK is in there because I had one visitor sign my guestbook who did not disclose what model he had (he's either too confused or is paranoid I guess) and since I am not a psychic I decided "UNK" was better than making one up. The current total is now 85 and growing and the GL-2 is WAY over-represented in a complaint site like mine, in view of what this camera costs. I think the GL-1/GL-2 totals are now 8 (combined). For anyone who reads this and wants to see my site, here is the URL:


http://mysite.verizon.net/resohb20

[David Ennis]

Rick, I've said before that I respect what you're trying to do. When you say that the GL2 is way over-represented for a cam of it's cost I'd agree, unless Canon has sold several million GL2s.

When America first started responding to the Japanese quality invasion in the late 70's, an acceptable goal for many manufacturers was 2700 defective units per million. Expectations have risen substantially. No world-class manufacturer will stand for more than single digits in parts per million of a recurring defect mode without launching an investigation.

But all that notwithstanding, I wonder what the odds of my own GL2 developing the REMOVE CASSETTE error is. I'm going to start a new post to see if anyone is interested in guessing.

[Scott Silverman]

I think it's key to remember that there are probably quite a few people who have run into this problem on their GL2 on a smaller scale and have not even bothered looking it up online, much less actually posting their problem to become a statistic.

I know when my GL2 started having this "Remove the Cassette" error message, I ignored it. I could somewhat fudge my way around the problem by turning off the power and removing and then reinserting the cassette. I just figured it was some random error and didn't think much of it.

Eventually, the problem got a lot worse, to the point where it would recur on every tape at least once (sometimes not until it was 20 minutes into playing or recording a tape), and on some days it would not accept any tapes at all.

I really didn't want to send my camera in for service because time without it means a loss in profit for me. However, it was too unreliable to be used in any professional situation. So I decided to take advantage of my Mack 4 year extended warranty, and sent it in for service last week. We'll see what happens.

Anyways, my point is, I think this problem is more common than we think. We just don't see it very well represented here on the board because many consumers will just write it off as a one or two time problem and ignore it (which, for me at first, it was).

[Sam Post]

I had the problem with my GL2 and sent it to Mack Camera. They sent it back and the problem recurred immediately. I sent it back in and the second fix has held for seven tapes and lots of rewinding.

[Bill Hardy]

I think the first thing one should do, and it may sound ridiculous to some, is to use a cleaning cassette. My GL2 goes unused for months at a time, and I seem to recall using the cleaning cassette to stop the problem at one time. May not work in all cases, certainly, but it it one simple procedure worth considering.