8 yr old vhsc tape keeps sticking.. any suggestions?

[DaveS]

Someone gave me a VHSC tape to capture so I am trying to use that panosonic 'playpack' that you can put the tape in then play it in a regular vcr.

the problem is the tape keeps sticking and shutting off the vcr. I have tried to fastforward through the whole tape then rewind it & try again but that doesn't seem to fix it (nor did tapping it for a while to loosen it up). it happens enough that I can't manually restart it & edit out the restarts - too many of them. I also changed the battery in the playpack to see if that would help, but no luck. I also tried a second VCR but same result (both consumer models).

anyone have any suggestions? I searched the forum but didn't find anything. the tape is 8 yrs old & was probably kept cool in the house. I will borrow his camcorder when I see him so maybe that will fix it. but, since I bet this will happen again I thought I'd see if anyone had any suggestions for when this happens.

thanks in advance for any posts.

[vance43211]

it is kinda complicated to explain but here goes

take the tape apart

take the tape off the spindles and rollers

reel the tape in to each other. make sure the tapes are off the spindles and rollers.

screw the tape back together

rewind or fast foward

then visa versa

take the tape back apart

put the tape back how it was in the first place

i use to do that a lot 10 - 15 years ago on tightly wound tapes (vcr or cassattes)

thank goodness for cds and dvds

[lordsmurf]

None of my -C tapes play in a normal VCR, no matter the brand of adapter. Just playback in a VHS-C or SVHS-C camera. That's what I do.

A VCR will either stop, stutter, or worse... eat the tape.

I'd not take apart the tape if you've never done so. Or at least practice on a junk VHS tape. Doing that is not easy, as there are loose springs/rollers that must be put back EXACTLY.

[vance43211]

yeah i forgot to mention that

buy a cheap tape just to figure out how to take it apart

[DaveS]

thanks - greatly appreciated...what makes it stick anyway / why does taking it apart help?

[vance43211]

i don't know

but about 80% of the time with me

it was usually cheaper media

but not all of the time

[cooel]

If you do take the cassette apart points to remember are, do not handle the tape with your fingers, use fine lint free gloves if you can, try to make sure that the screwdriver you use to open the cassette with is not magnetic as this would damage the recording.

[i_am_dave]

Don't know if it will help you, but when I have a problem with VHS tapes like this, I back out the screws about 1/4 turn, then fast forward and rewind about 5 times, usually works.
But again, this was for VHS.