Problems playing Hi 8 tapes with my camera

[roscoe47]

All tapes were filmed with this camera. All tapes have the same playing problem: sound and video is intermittent. Does cleaning the heads with alcohol and q-tip ruin the heads? I used to do this when the camera was functional and it worked fine. I did this because the cleaning tape that came with the camera never did any good. The camera was put away for some time and then re-used. Puerto Rico's climate is pretty hot and humid at times. Could this be a factor in the camera not working? It would seem the problem is tracking but in another thread I read these Hi-8 cameras have no way of controlling tracking. The camera is a Sony DCR-TRV 103 NTSC. I'm trying to save my tapes to DVD. Thanks for any help with this.

[lordsmurf]

Does cleaning the heads with ... q-tip ruin the heads?

Yes, easily -- never use cotton Q-Tip brand swabs. Or any other cotton swab.

Only use chamois.
For example, these: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0047Y5W62/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thdifa-20&link...SIN=B0047Y5W62