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  1. Everything I say is false koberulz's Avatar
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    My VCR is only playing the first two minutes (or thereabouts) of a tape, then rewinding it. At one point, when the tape would have been at what the VCR thinks is the end, it kept ejecting it as soon as I put it in. I've fiddled with it a bit since then, and that behaviour has stopped.

    I've tried two other tapes earlier today, and they worked fine. They had the tab that allows recording removed. This tape has also had that tab removed, but it's been taped over.

    Any ideas what's going on?
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  2. Member hech54's Avatar
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    Fast forward the tape to the end, then rewind it. If that doesn't work then you need a stronger VCR.....or try taking the guts out of that tape and transferring it to a new housing.
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  3. Everything I say is false koberulz's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by hech54 View Post
    Fast forward the tape to the end
    It'll only fast-forward as far as it'll play.

    a stronger VCR
    I don't even know what that means.
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  4. Member hech54's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by koberulz View Post
    I don't even know what that means.
    Some machines, for one reason or another, simply cannot pull the larger/longer tapes:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VHS#Tape_lengths

    If the tape you are having trouble with is the same capacity of the ones that work.....then the tape is defective.
    Period.
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  5. Everything I say is false koberulz's Avatar
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    The other two were only 15 minutes, this one is longer. Not sure how long it is, though. Grabbed a commercial VHS tape I've still got lying around that has significantly more tape in it (180 mins), and that's been working fine for the past five minutes.

    What could the issue with the tape be? I'm assuming it was working about a year ago; a friend of my dad's was clearing out his old tapes and gave a couple to me to convert to DVD, so one presumes he's watched them at least enough to know what they are (and the two minutes that do work are a random TV show, so he would've watched further in). Had other things to do, finally got around to it, and it's not working. Is it worth trying to get the tape off the write protect slot, or is it more serious than that?
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  6. Member hech54's Avatar
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    The slot has nothing to do with it.
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  7. Everything I say is false koberulz's Avatar
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    Anything at all I can do?
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  8. Member hech54's Avatar
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    Aside from what I've already said, it comes down to simple deduction on your part.
    So the answer is no.
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    Play tape until it stops then eject it (before it rewinds) and open the flap covering the tape and inspect the tape. Look for a twisted tape or particles missing that allows the end senser to triger.

    You may have to release the brake of the cassette to pull out a lenght of tape to find the problem.
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  10. Then manually wind it forward to get past the bad spot and play the rest of the tape.
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