VCR tape not ejecting/shutting down after a while
 

Hi!
I have an old VCR which has recently been given a new purpose in life as my son has started discovering my old childhood video cartoons.

It's all been bells and whistles until recently when the VCR suddenly refused to eject a cassette. So I decided to take a look at it.

First, I routinely tested to press the power button and then the eject button. The VCR powered on but it didn't eject the cassette (as expected). On top of that it suddenly shut down. I powered it on once again, and the same procedured occured.

Why does it shut itself down? It would seem like some electrical or circuit problem, rather than a mechanical one.

But I'm lost here s now I'm turning to you for your expertise.

Thanks in advance.

In general, VCRs internal controllers are set to shut town if they detect a problem or unexpected condition that cannot be addressed by successfully ejecting the tape. It could include a jammed cassette, bad switch contact, a gear that has jumped a cog to put things out of phase, or a number of other issues such as hardened rubber parts, broken/stretched belts, dried lubricant, broken parts such as gears, foreign material inside the mechanism, or a problem with the inserted tape cartridge. The controller goal was to minimize the chance of damaging a tape or the mechanism.

Please give us more to go on. For a start tell us the make/model of your VCR. Some have known issues.

Thanks for helping!

The VCR is a Nesco HV-41.

Here are some images:
https://imgur.com/Kp77fdq
https://imgur.com/fxL4uq
https://imgur.com/ogfupU2

Images also attached here

Thanks for attaching.
BTW, if you ever need to attach high-res version, put the images inside a zip/rar/7z, and attach that.

In most cases, consumer VCRs are well beyond their useful life, and parts of both broken and unavailable. Those are not like pro or prosumer decks, which were design for longer use, and still have parts (or can be frankensteined from like model decks that also needed repair).

Most consumer decks saw zero maintenance, and manufacturers didn't tell consumers it was needed to extend the life of the unit. They mostly wanted to sell you another deck when it failed, with it/us being a disposable society. It's not at all like it was with pro or even prosumer decks, where you were informed of needed maintenance (although most people still didn't do it, either at all or properly).

Thanks for the tip :)!

Yes, I bought this VCR in 1988 and it's certainly served its duty of entertainment over the years - even for my son!

I guess I could just tear out the cassette stuck inside with brute force but I thought I'd treat the old Nestor with some dignity before bidding it farewell :)

In those photos the tape appears to be loose in the mechanism, not threaded around guides and the cylinder as it should be. There probably is a way to manually rewind the tape into the cassette and eject it, but that may involve additional disassembly to access the bottom side of the mechanism. It would be described in the service manual, if you can find one for it, or a different branded twin machine, although 1988 is a long time ago. It is possible, if not very likely, the loose tape is obstructing a sensor and causing the system to halt. If you are able to remove the tape and want to try again, do so with an unimportant tape.

FWIW: At least some NESCO models (e.g., HV-71) were made by FUNAI.

Given the age it probably is not worth spending any money on it.