The flex cables used to connect the buttons to the PCB can be a bit fragile, similar to the kind of things used in modern cellphones. Got a slightly newer sony MiniDV camera here where the ribbon cable connecting the button panel on the door to the pcb, and it eventually teared so the camera can no longer be turned on. It could be something else as well, but a bad or loose cable sounds likely.
If it's a cable issue it's possible you could replace some of the cable and parts that hold the buttons with ones from the Digital8 only camera from the same lineup (tends to be a fair bit cheaper than the models that playback Hi8). Alternatively, if you have good soldering skills maybe you could solder on a manual eject switch to the connector pins that normally goes to the eject switch (or even repair the cable but that's rather tricky.) If it's just loose or dirty it should be easy to reattach, but you got to be careful when opening it to avoid tearing any cables.
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