Do these video heads sound normal? (VCR)
 

I put a bad tape in my Panasonic NV-HS860 VCR, and it stopped playing. So put another video in and the picture had all the comet tails, which is typical of dirty heads, so i guess this tape must've been dirty. I then cleaned them using foam q-tips and 99.9% isopropyl alcohol. When manually turning the drum i could feel the heads snagging a little when it was run against the q-tip.. don't know if i didn't wet it enough. But put another tape in and everything plays fine, picture looks great. Just when it's rewind/fast-forwarding it doesn't sound right to me, occasionally making a scraping sound (Possibly the reel tables?). I hope none of the tape heads have been snagged out of place and is scratching/damaging the tapes?

Anyway i've recorded the sounds to clarify if everything is normal, and nothing is wrong?

First audio clip is a full tape cycle, fast forwarded, then rewound. Second clip is the tape playing. Third is it playing right at the start of a tape (is the head noise supposed to sound like that?)

I've also taken a couple of pictures inside of the unit too. The white plastic spindle has some weird yellow residue on it.

With Panasonic S-VHS decks, actually, no, its often not the heads. The caps are the culprit. Creating magnetic dropouts, aka comets, is a side effect. Deter just finished fixing on of my decks with that issue. Be aware of this. Sometimes, yes, it really is heads. But usually, no, it is not.

I think that "residue" is lube/grease.

Hopefully one of our VCR-repairing members will be in this thread shortly. :)

Ah, it was working just fine until i put in that dodgy tape, when the sound went all funny then stopped playing altogether. The picture is all fine again since i cleaned the heads. Can the caps making the scraping noise damage the tapes?

Also on an unrelated note, i've been unable to log into premium membership, after the purchase.

Odd. PM me about this.