Need Help with Panasonic AG-1980 Color Problem

[BrainStorm69]

So, I just tried using my AG-1980 that has been sitting ide for about 3-4 years (plugged in but off). It used to work pretty well back then, but now I am having a real problem with the color. It barely has any color to the picture, but some spikey streak of color running left to tailing off to right into almost B&W. I have also noticed that if I stop a tape, and then start it again, for a few brief seconds, it has color, but it then fades into what I described above.

Any ideas about what is causing this?

I have a couple of short mpegs you can download to see what I am talking about.

http://www.mediafire.com/file/yy2jzy2tqm1/AG-1980 Problem01.mpg

http://www.mediafire.com/file/ynwty5q2zcm/AG-1980 Problem02.mpg

[classfour]

Have you eliminated any cable issues (S-Video???)?

The color looked normal at the beginning of the second clip, then BAM! back to grayscale.

I noted some "sparkle", mine does that if the heads are a little dirty.

Hopefully, nothing fried - they're nice playing VCRs.

[lordsmurf]

sitting ide for about 3-4 years (plugged in but off).

Do I even need to tell you what you did wrong here?

For the others that are not up to speed, I'll go ahead and explain it: ALWAYS UNPLUG anything that is going to sit idle for more than 2 weeks.

[BrainStorm69]

Have you eliminated any cable issues (S-Video???)?

The color looked normal at the beginning of the second clip, then BAM! back to grayscale.

I noted some "sparkle", mine does that if the heads are a little dirty.

Hopefully, nothing fried - they're nice playing VCRs.

No cable issues..tried several s-video cables and they are all the same. I also tried a composite cable...same story. I also cleaned the heads...no difference.

sitting ide for about 3-4 years (plugged in but off).

Do I even need to tell you what you did wrong here?

For the others that are not up to speed, I'll go ahead and explain it: ALWAYS UNPLUG anything that is going to sit idle for more than 2 weeks.

Yeah, I know it was not a bright idea. I just never really thought about it. I also opened up the case and took the power supply out and looked at the caps. Didn't see anything that looked like bad caps to me.

I am wondering if, since it will start out playing in color very briefly, that perhaps the tape tensioner is not keeping the tape close enough to the heads somehow once things get moving. That is, I get some color briefly to begin with because the tape is closer to the heads, but then the tape isn't quite tensioned enough to keep the tape close enough to heads.