Self-induced JVC VCR buying pain?
 

So I picked up an HR-S7900U on Ebay, yes I know...and yes I was 1/2 expecting this. :depressed:

Unfortunately the issues started upon the box opening. One of the plastic pieces of the casing was shattered.

I was able to open the case and remove a couple of pieces of the plastic casing that was hanging around in the case.

I can get power but the display flashed Auto. The unit also does not accept tapes. The loading mechanism never engages, then the display shortly after switches back to flashing Auto.

Of my exploration I could not see any broken springs, but one of the plastic mechanism on the right side seems a bit loose.

My gut is telling me I got swindled...but any advice? Is this a redeemable situation?

Sounds like it might have been poorly packed and has been damaged in transit. Inadequate packing is common I believe. I try to test and pick up locally for that reason.

1st you can try to see if the loading mech works by manually loading the belt on the motor. Could be a cracked gear on the side or motor aswell.

Yeah 100% seems the case. The box was shoddy and had a dent and I knew it wasn't going to be great. There wasn't a lot of packing material that would have made a difference (paper and foam, no bubble wrap). I'm on the East Coast US and it came from California so definitely made a trek.

My comfort level is armature, I'll take things apart and clean them but I have my limits. I've reached out to a local TV repair shop by me to see if they still repair VCRs. I am still looking for good gear, but if I can get this as least as a back up rig, it'll be better than the paper weight it is right now.

Where, generally, on East Coast?

Based on your location, close enough ;-) I'll PM you!

Not 100% sure what you mean here? I can send a video of what I'm seeing. But I've also tried manually turning the belt and there was no change that I could see.

I'd say take pictures of the damage and a video of it not loading tapes and see if the seller would rather have you return it for a full refund (and they'll also have to cover the return shipping since it didn't arrive as described/damaged) or see if he'd rather give you a partial refund of most of the order price. Guessing based on completed listings that yours was the $395 + $40 shipping one?

The "Auto" you are seeing is it just trying to auto set the clock which those signals don't exist for anyway, so that in and of itself isn't anything bad, but not what you want to see when you are trying to have it do other things like play a tape.

Odds are that there is some combo of loading motor belt slipping, mechanism is stuck due to landing a certain way during shipping, dynamic drum gears are cracked (should be able to search for the fix of that with "dynamic drum fix" on google), and/or the mode switch is dirty. All of those things can be addressed in like 30 minutes if you've done it before, but you can also permanently damage the thin ribbon cable that comes out of the bottom of the drum (which isn't really replaceable once damaged) if you're not careful, and that definitely has happened to me before.

Guess the other question is how many tapes you have to convert - could be less expensive to send them to a member here for a reasonable fee per tape and have it end up costing quite a bit less by the same method of your choice using the same or better hardware you would have used.

...But for some, it's more about the process than the destination. Or if you want to be able to convert tapes as needed on an ongoing basis, you'd need your own setup for sure.

You said it wont load any tape, correct ?
If so, try to do the loading manually, disconnected indeed (the motor is on the back-right i believe) then see if you can complete the FULL loading cycle (with the tape wrapped around the drum). If you can = no cracked gears but possible mode switch issue. (And it'll be a mission to get to it, assuming it's like on the 7700, more infos later)

Just return it. This idea that you need to repair it is ridiculous. Knowing eBay sellers, it probably never worked, so this is fool's errand here. Certainly do not spend more money on a repairman. Did you want to buy a VCR repair project, or a VCR to actually use? This is what often happens buying from random nobodies on eBay. And all of them are random nobodies, mostly reseller flippers that know nothing about video.