Eject! at DVinfo.net

Rok Furman · November 25th, 2005, 09:47 AM

damn, my xl-1 is getting ill. as i insert a tape into the recorder, it starts to read from the tape and then the "EJECT" announciator goes off in the viewfinder and the power button starts to flash. i cannot do anything with the tape. i can't even record.

what should I do? i did a search through old threads and found out that running a cleaner tape through the mechanism fixed this kind of problem for some - however, we always clean the heads "by hand" and i did the same in my case, but it didn't help a bit.

any ideas?

Richard Alvarez · November 25th, 2005, 09:55 AM

When you say you cleaned the heads by 'hand'. Do you mean to say you ran a swab over the heads on the drum? That's a risky thing to do... as the heads of a MiniDV are so sensitive to allignment, the pressure from a hand cleaning COULD ( I emphasize COULD) mis-allign them.

You could try and run a cleaning tape through anyway, at this point I doubt you can hurt it with a tape cleaning. IF that doesn't help, it's off to Canon.

Rok Furman · November 27th, 2005, 03:14 PM

canon's gonna charge me a lot for the servicing - if it isn't a problem of the heads it could be a much greater problem and anything involving opening the camera should be pretty expensive.

is there a list of common malfunctions that can be related to the EJECT error? such as for example, failure of which element in the tape mechanism is known to cause it.
i could check through these known elements at home, before sending the cam to canon.

anyway, i'll try a different tape tomorrow and we'll see - if it doesn't work, i'll check with a friend who's a real surgeon for any camera's intestines... if he doesn't know what to do, i guess canon really is the only solution for me.

uu, and by the way! how much does a used FireStore hard drive recorder for the XL-1 cost? what's the lowes price for, lets say, the 40GB version? just in case :)

David Ennis · November 27th, 2005, 06:41 PM

Rok,
Two guys report success with the following treatment on GL2s. The problem is reputed to appear across model lines, so maybe the fix will too.

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthrea...t=42822&page=8

Fred

Rok Furman · November 29th, 2005, 02:03 PM

i finally found the time and tried a different tape. i went down to the studio and loaded some professional tape from JVC (the kind of casette that doesn't have the chip that stores timecode) and the cam worked with no problems whatsoever. it seems the cam just doesn't like Sony's tape anymore.

thanks for the info though, i'm sure it'll come in handy someday

November 25th, 2005, 09:47 AM	#1
Rok Furman Regular Crew Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Maribor, Slovenia Posts: 25	Eject! damn, my xl-1 is getting ill. as i insert a tape into the recorder, it starts to read from the tape and then the "EJECT" announciator goes off in the viewfinder and the power button starts to flash. i cannot do anything with the tape. i can't even record. what should I do? i did a search through old threads and found out that running a cleaner tape through the mechanism fixed this kind of problem for some - however, we always clean the heads "by hand" and i did the same in my case, but it didn't help a bit. any ideas?

November 27th, 2005, 06:41 PM	#4
David Ennis Fred Retread Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Hartford, CT Posts: 1,227	Rok, Two guys report success with the following treatment on GL2s. The problem is reputed to appear across model lines, so maybe the fix will too. http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthrea...t=42822&page=8 Fred __________________ "Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence..." - Calvin Coolidge "My brain is wired to want to know how other things are wired." - Me

November 25th, 2005, 09:55 AM	#2
Richard Alvarez Inner Circle Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: San Mateo, CA Posts: 3,840	When you say you cleaned the heads by 'hand'. Do you mean to say you ran a swab over the heads on the drum? That's a risky thing to do... as the heads of a MiniDV are so sensitive to allignment, the pressure from a hand cleaning COULD ( I emphasize COULD) mis-allign them. You could try and run a cleaning tape through anyway, at this point I doubt you can hurt it with a tape cleaning. IF that doesn't help, it's off to Canon.

November 27th, 2005, 03:14 PM	#3
Rok Furman Regular Crew Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Maribor, Slovenia Posts: 25	canon's gonna charge me a lot for the servicing - if it isn't a problem of the heads it could be a much greater problem and anything involving opening the camera should be pretty expensive. is there a list of common malfunctions that can be related to the EJECT error? such as for example, failure of which element in the tape mechanism is known to cause it. i could check through these known elements at home, before sending the cam to canon. anyway, i'll try a different tape tomorrow and we'll see - if it doesn't work, i'll check with a friend who's a real surgeon for any camera's intestines... if he doesn't know what to do, i guess canon really is the only solution for me. uu, and by the way! how much does a used FireStore hard drive recorder for the XL-1 cost? what's the lowes price for, lets say, the 40GB version? just in case :)

November 29th, 2005, 02:03 PM	#5
Rok Furman Regular Crew Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Maribor, Slovenia Posts: 25	i finally found the time and tried a different tape. i went down to the studio and loaded some professional tape from JVC (the kind of casette that doesn't have the chip that stores timecode) and the cam worked with no problems whatsoever. it seems the cam just doesn't like Sony's tape anymore. thanks for the info though, i'm sure it'll come in handy someday