VHS Get's Tangled In VCR - HELP!!

[EViS]

I have a VERY important VHS tape which will not play/rewind/fastforward in either my Sony VCR or JVC HR-8600. The actual tape simply gets tangled inside the machine.

The tape is a good 19years old, what could be wrong with it? Any way it can be fixed?

All advice highly appreciated .

[JohnnyMalaria]

Do other tapes play okay on that VCR (or do both tangle it)?

Can you open the cassette? (Some have little cross-head screws to let you take it apart - others are sonically welded). If so, read up on the construction of a VHS tape first (!) Possibly some of the rollers are jammed....

[EViS]

All other tapes are fine and capture fine.

I've already opened the tape up, swapped the reels into another case and now manually rewinding the tape back incase of oxidation/rust/etc. Am I wasting my time? What else can it be?

[EViS]

Right, well I changed the reel into a new case and re-round the tape half way manually. Inserted it into my VCR and all seems fine, however the place where it kept catching originally has a few creases, is the VHS likely to get tangled at this point again when played there?

[edDV]

Right, well I changed the reel into a new case and re-round the tape half way manually. Inserted it into my VCR and all seems fine, however the place where it kept catching originally has a few creases, is the VHS likely to get tangled at this point again when played there?

Classic old tape problem is binder cement seeping to the surface making the tape sticky in the VCR tape path. This tape sounds marginal. Capture in small segments while you can. It will only get worse. Tape ends will be the worse case because of tighter wind. Expect these tapes to gunk up your VCR with oxide and binder cement.

There are advanced techniques if the tape is far gone (baking etc.) that need expert assistance. Consider this article just an introduction. Don't try this at home on important tapes. http://www.tangible-technology.com/tape/baking1.html