Sony EVO-9850 Errors 20 and 90
 

Hi all, new here. I own two EVO-9850 units and neither of them work properly:

One starts up OK but the head doesn't spin, rather makes a bunch of squealing noises and then the machine throws Error 20

The other one throws Error 20 immediately, and sometimes Error 90 when restarting. Lights are on indicating that it thinks there is still a tape in the deck. Haven't tried inserting a tape.

I have purchased volume 1 of the service manual but it doesn't appear too helpful at this time. I have scoured google for information and found one potential lead about four unidentified capacitors on a poorly described board, but that is all.

I'm hoping someone may have some experience with these or similar devices and would be able to point me in the right direction. I have a lot of Hi-8 tapes to digitize!

Thanks for looking! Any help is appreciated!

Search Error 20 & 90 and you'll find lots of links saying it's likely bad/dried up capacitors or a bad/loose board connection. Bad/dried capacitors are common problem as all old electronics.

If you're handy with a soldiering iron, you may be able to do the replacement yourself or have someone do it for you.

I found lots of places mentioning capacitors, but no hard details about which ones exactly to replace. There are something like 12 boards in this thing and probably 500 different capacitors!! I am handy with a soldering iron and am ready to do some surgery, but I need to know where to make the incision! Thanks for the reply!

The OP in this thread has the same question you had. You might try ordering the manuals suggested by dpaolomaki:

http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/vcr-...vo-9850-a.html

Ultimately, the answer is to replace all the boards and caps since once you find the specific ones are bad, the others aren't likely far behind.