Sony Betamax SL-HF900 cuts power?
 

Hello everyone, I'm having a weird problem with my Sony Betamax SL-HF900, so im able to rewind and fast forward the tapes but as soon as i press play the player cuts the power to the TV while remaining on and then doesnt respond to any other button. It also doesnt spin when i press play either. Another weird thing is the picture is all static while its on but you cant hear any noise, but when it cuts the power it goes back to the TV static noise so im assuming some kind of signal is coming through. Any idea whats going on here?

Not sure I understand the post.

Does the VCR turn the TV set OFF or just blank the screen?

By static do you mean a screen of noise, like selecting to a non-existent channel on an old TV set?

What do you mean by "spin"?

sorry for the confusion, it does not turn the tv screen off, its hard to explain really but when the player turns on, the "screen noise" sound that i usually have on my tv goes away but the picture is still all static like you selected the wrong channel. so to me that indicates that it is giving some kind of signal to the tv. by spinning i just mean the motor itself doesnt start to spin and play the tape, but the motor does work when i fast forward or rewind the tape. im connecting the player to the tv using RCA cables too

Sounds like a potentially serious problem.

http://www.mrbetamax.com/AskMrBQ&A.htm#
provides a FAQ on Betamax stuff. The site also has some troubleshooting guides, and appears to be current.

They also offer repair service (limited to Beta gear, no VHS) but I do not know whether or not they are good. Some posts here have referred to them, and some posts at at videohelp.com speak well of them.

This is what I found for a possible similar Sony SLHF-900 Betamax problem. I hadn't used my SLHF-900 for a quite while and this weekend it would not play and would time out back to stop in about 3 seconds. The capstan which is direct drive from its motor shaft was not turning. (no belts in this model other than the cassette loading belt) I could fast forward/rewind the tape ok from stop. I could hit play and quickly hit pause and it would stay in pause and I could then use the jog wheel to step the tape forward or backward which stepped the capstan as normal. The problem was the 4.9Vdc reference for the capstan board from the SS-53 Servo board (large bd on bottom of tape side) was shorted to ground by a shorted C548 (100uf 6.3v) on the Servo board. Measure at IC505 pin 14 or connector cn508 pin 1 on Servo bd near middle of hinged edge. I was glad I didn't need to pull out the capstan motor assembly/board.

SL-HF900 Betamax
 

I have the same problem with the same model, However C548 is not the failure cause. I can still measure the short with C548 out of circuit and it checks ok . What other components might cause this short?

Pin 14 on IC 505 shows ground in circuit but when isolating pin 14 is is not shorted to anything through the chip. I do not have a schematic of the board.

Thanks.