How bad is VCR repair nowadays (cost-wise)?

[studtrooper]

Sup. Well, I just got this cool Multi-System (PAL, NTSC, SECAM) Hitachi VT-M70EM VCR for about $10 off eBay. The catch? You guessed it, it is non-functional. Apparently the blasted thing worked great and then all the sudden it just wouldn't turn on. I figured it was a measly power supply problem that could hopefully be fixed quick. Anyway, my question is: how bad is VCR repair nowadays? Hopefully it won't cost me a arm and a leg... I've been looking at www.fixer.com to see if I could possibly do it myself but that looks a little out of my league, plus they didn't have my model in their extensive database.

[pbanders]

Skilled electronics repair will cost you. You're paying for knowledge, tools, and skills you lack!!

That said, given the kind of failure you describe, depending on your skills you may want to take a look at fixing it yourself. The most common problem with equipment that won't turn on is either a blown fuse in the power supply and/or a failed transient voltage suppression (TVS) device. TVS's fail when a powerline spike exceeds the trip rating of the device (brownout, lightening, etc.)

If you feel like you're comfortable doing it, open the VCR and find the power supply. Does it have a fuse? Is it blown? If so, DON'T REPLACE IT JUST YET! Often, the reason the fuse is blown is because a device called a transient voltage suppressor (a 2-lead device) has blown and is shorting the power supply leads, which BLOWS THE FUSE!

That's why you often hear people say, "yeah, I found the blown fuse, replaced it, but the moment I plugged it back in, it blew the new fuse". You need to replace the TVS <first> before putting in the new fuse. How do you find it? There may be a schematic in the lid of the VCR, or you may be able to get one from the manufacturer. The symbol is often the same as for a Zener diode. Check it first with a diode check on your DMM - blown? That's the problem... No? Then it's just the fuse. Fuse OK? Then the power supply is probably bad, which is a much more complicated repair job.

Assuming the TVS is blown...

These devices are often pricey in low quantities. But, if you feel like living dangerously, there is a cheap "fix". Cut it in half with your diagonal shears! Now, it's an open, and the fuse won't blow and the supply should work. Of course, in doing so, you have no surge suppression, so the next surge will likely blow your power supply, so caveat emptor! Digi-Key is a supplier of these devices. Once you get a replacement, it's a matter of removing the old device and soldering in the new component. Gee, by this point, that $150 for a repair isn't looking so bad, is it? Good luck!

[Capmaster]

With VCRs being "throwaway" devices nowadays, they probably would charge more than when they used to regularly repair them. Most folks will shell out $50 for a new one rather than pay for a repair.

Your VCR is not the average VCR, though. It's quite nice having multi-format like that. I wish I had one. That being said, it might not be a bad idea to have it repaired professionally. Unless it's just a bad fuse or like pbanders suggests, a shorted voltage suppressor ($0.79 part at Radio Shack), you're likely to do more harm than good if you start poking around inside. That's how annoying little springs get lost

Try to find a shop that'll give you a cheap, or free estimate. Then at least you'll know if it's something you can handle yourself, or if you need to let the "pros" handle it. Good luck

[studtrooper]

$150 repair!? Dammit. Looks like I bought a paper weight :/ I'll go check on that estimate though...

[DVDDave]

pbanders,

even though i have no need to fix anything at the moment, that was an AWESOME explanation!!!!! i am sure i will have something that will break eventually and now know where to begin. thanks!!!!

[LNielsen76]

I would have to agree with DVDDave. Your explanationa and possible solutions was fantastic! I have done mechanical repair (which is fairly simple and novice), but never any electronic to VCRs. I must say that I too am impressed with the extensive explanation on dead VCRs.

[LNielsen76]

BTW, if you do end up need a schematic...get it at the local library. It is always cheaper to xerox the Schematic than buying one or having the VCR Repair man purchase one, then charge you an inflated price for it, then keep the damn thing.

[handyguy]

Vcr fuses are easy to find. They are usually right in back of the machine & are big regular fuses.

[pbanders]

Thanks, but when it comes to electronic repair, I'm just a hack. I'm an EE, but my area of specialty is NOT basic electronic repair!

There are some great web references out there for people who want to learn repair, and often, the things that are wrong with EXPENSIVE equipment that is sold for $5 on eBay can be fixed for $10 or less in parts.

[gmatov]

Shame on you!

An EE who can't fix a 5 buck VCR? Take a crack at it. You're at most out 5 bucks for the unit and 10 for the parts.

Who knows, you might find you have a flair for it.

If you can draw a schematic, you can read one, and they are generally pasted inside the cover, or close by. Read the traces, if you should have X volts, here, and you have 0 volts, blown comp. Higher voltage, shorted comp.

Simple enough, except it may be something up or down stream that caused the fault. That's where a competent shop comes in. They no longer buy printed schematics, just buy an annual CD and that will have frequency of faults on it, as well as what causes part A to go, and what will happen when you replace part A. Part B will go, next.

I have taken comps to an expert, so styled, who checked the CD and said not worth fixing, it will go bad again after 1 to 4 weeks, unless we replace more than the whole unit is worth.

Kudos to him. Couyld have charged me 60 bucks to fix the present prob, done it again next month when it blew again.

Cheers,

George

[handyguy]

I usually get my vcr parts from Studio Sound on the web. Sometimes they give you info on what you might need.

What happened when I took in my vcrs:
1. This guy kept it for a YEAR!!! Then said, sorry, can't do it, but ah, no charge for looking at it for you.
2. This guy couldn't find my vcr after a week (even though it had my name on it attached clearly by me). So gave me another vcr. But the lady in the shop told me privately that that vcr has been given to 3 customers already & returned by them.

Moral of the story, do it yourself.

[pbanders]

Shame on you!

An EE who can't fix a 5 buck VCR? Take a crack at it. You're at most out 5 bucks for the unit and 10 for the parts.

I'm the EE and I <do> fix my stuff, I'm just not the greatest at it. It's the guy who started the thread who was wondering about it, I don't think he's an EE.

BTW, if you want something repaired and it's beyond your abilities to do so, and if you happen to live in the Phoenix AZ area, Dyna-tronics is the place. All the technicians are old guys who pride themselves on fixing anything you can toss at them - projection sets, old tube radios, even electronic test equipment repair if you goad them...

[Roundabout]

I hope you don't mind me cutting in. A lot of you guys know I worked for Sony as a tech for over 15 years, and I repaired thousands of electronic devices for them during that time. I didn't repair VCR's (only occasionally), I was an audio lead technician and spent most of my time on CD Players, Reel-to-reel recorders (remember, this is a few years back and people still wanted them repaired, for any price), Receivers, Tape Decks, etc.

Though I didn't repair VCR's often, mostly my own and friend's units, I have repaired them from time to time. Dead units are (usually) the easiest to fix, but not always.

All of them, especially worldwide units, use a switching power supply that converts the AC to DC by means of a so-called "chopper" circuit. They use this type of power supply as it is cheaper, lighter and runs cooler than a power transformer. There are a number of things that can go wrong, as the supply is running 24/7 regardless of whether or not the unit is powered up. If it didn't, you wouldn't be able to use the remote and other functions without physically getting up and turning the unit on and off.

Due to the fact that the unit is "on" 24/7 for all intents and purposes, the power supply is usually the first electronic component to go bad in the VCR (mechanical parts are first, of course). Any number of things can cause the unit to go dead. First off, you should determine if there is any power at all getting to the unit. Is there any kind of indication of power, a power light, display, noise when you press the power switch, etc? If you have any power at all indicated by these clues, the P/S may not be bad.

Having a schematic is imperative, unless you are familiar with the unit, as a number of things can cause this problem, not only a bad power supply. I've seen instances where something as simple as a stuck or shorted power button can cause the whole unit to go dead. There is also a circuit that switches the power supply from standby "quasi-on" to fully on, and that could also be the problem.

My Sony SLV-575 power supply went dead a couple of years back, and I replaced the entire supply (got one from someone I know that still works there) and didn't bother troubleshooting the supply. I opened up the old one, and there were a number of burned components, not only one, or a blown fuse. A lot of parts failed, most likely one shorted and took out the rest of the parts at the same time.

The avalanche diode that pbanders was speaking of could be the problem, but only if the unit has seen a high voltage spike - usually from lightning, but it's not something that would fail without reason. In normal use, this device should not fail. Avalanche diodes are connected in the circuit so that the cathode is positive in respect to the anode, thereby being non-conducting (no effect on the circuit) until the voltage increases beyond the design limit of the device. It then suffers avalanche breakdown, causing it to conduct the harmful voltage across itself - meaning it will essentially be a "short" circuit. It may or may not be destroyed, depending on whether or not it overheats (which can happen quickly on a very high voltage). If not, it continues to protect the circuit and possibly you would only have a blown fuse.

Take out the power supply in your unit, it should be in a shielded box in the back of the unit (a lot of RF noise from these supplies requires them to be shielded) and open it up and look for burned parts. A capacitor may have blown, very common failure due to the constant heat. The electrolyte dries out over time and the cap shorts out and sometimes burns or actually explodes. If you have a DMM, you can check the switching transistors for shorts, as well as the caps. Look for burned resistors, etc and anything that looks suspicious. If everything looks normal, the problem may not be the supply.

Look up your model # in Google to see if others have had the same problem with this unit. I haven't found too much this way, most of the information about failures is not released the public - Sony had an internal repair database that all techs, including myself, contributed to over years, on the nature of failures and the repair that was made. But they sold this information to repair shops (no compensation for us, dammit!) and didn't give the info freely. Still, you could try on Google and see what comes up.

If you live in So.Cal. I could help you with it, but if you're somewhere else, and you want to have it fixed, and don't want to do it yourself, the best you can do is take it to a repuatable shop and get a repair estimate.

If you open the supply and see burned parts, post a picture and I or someone else will try to help you to identify what the component was and possibly suggest a course of action.

Hope that helps.

Roundabout

[vrieze42]

I have a friend that runs a fixit shop here in town. They usually can fix for under 25 dollars. Best of all is that they do free estimate. I don't know where you are located but if you are near Minnesota I can send you their way.

[pippas]

My VCR died -- tech fixed it - £20 ($30) - 3 months later - died again (different reason) ----- buy a new VCR? --- no, lets go for a DVD recorder--

WOW

The task now -- to get all the old VHS tapes onto DVD --- with the DVD recorder --- and then worry about what to do with those worth keeping

[ZAPPER]

THIS IS A GREAT THREAD! I would like to see a tech topic section here. I do some tinkering myself(please take pity on anything that I tinker with) I just do the visual inspection approach because I dont know any better. I don't know why I never probed anything in a home electronic device, I do it all the time with car engines and their sensors. I have an old GE TV with bad solder on the high voltage board? I watched a tech friend work on it years ago and he had a bitch of a time getting it resoldered. It worked fine for a few years and then started having the same symptons, popping off and then popping on at the best part of the movie. So I took a crack at resoldering it and had a bitch of a time, But got it to work for a few more years. I did it again not to long ago and in a few short weeks the problem is back. I think that I can't get it clean enough to take good solder. In the last few attempts I may have damaged the eching on the board and may have to do some creative rewiring to get it back working. Is there a good chemical cleaner acid? Another thing is that the lead off of the component is so damb short that it is almost not through the board. I am thinking about adding a short jumper wire in there to try and fix it(Yes Mickey Mouse is my second cousin twice removed and once disowened)

Anyhow I like seeing good tech advice like that above. With a little practice I may be able to remove that fork from the toaster.

pbanders: If you have no objections I would like to pick your brains sometime in a PM or just alert you to a few tech questions that I may post once I figure out the best wording for the questions.

[mazinz]

radio shack used to have a repair service as well. Not sure if they still do this but i recall bringing in on vhs deck and one beta (just os they could tell me what was wrong with it) and they sent them out. It was that much to fix (50 or so). but doing this stuff yourself would be great

[ZAPPER]

Studtrooper: Thanks for the link to fixer.com It looks like a good site. Now no VCR in the house will have all the screws in its case.

SAFETY TIP! Do not sit at a bench in your underware while soldering!

MARRIAGE TIP! Do not use 250 year old Cherry table as soldering bench!

FIGHTING TIP! Never say. "Bitch I dare you to stab me with that hot soldering iron."

[studtrooper]

Studtrooper: Thanks for the link to fixer.com It looks like a good site. Now no VCR in the house will have all the screws in its case.

SAFETY TIP! Do not sit at a bench in your underware while soldering!

MARRIAGE TIP! Do not use 250 year old Cherry table as soldering bench!

FIGHTING TIP! Never say. "Bitch I dare you to stab me with that hot soldering iron."

No prob. I just found that site while looking for info on my multi-VCR. Should be here next week as it is making a trip from Puerto Rico to Oregon