Andy's Techie Stuff

GDogFast · Joined: 07 Feb 2008 Posts: 3 Location: Laguna Hills, CA

Hi everyone:
This is my first post. I am an avid AV and electronics hobbyist. I own quite a few JVC video products as I have always been impressed with their superior technology and engineering. Unfortunately, build quality is another matter.

My prized possession, my HR-S9600U S-VHS VCR, after giving me years of excellent service has suddenly stopped working. On power up, it displays the tape counter, clock etc (normal screen) for about 2-3 seconds, then starts flashing the word "Auto". Pressing the power button from the remote will return the normal screen for 2-3 seconds then it goes back to flashing "Auto". It will load a tape and begin to play it for maybe 5 seconds, then returns to the flashing "Auto". This problem is similar to the flashing "Loading" problem I had with my DR-M10S DVD Recorder and my DR-MH30S HDD/DVD Recorder for which there is a lot of info here and other Forums. I can't find ANYTHING for this particular problem except a lone reference on the VideoHelp Forum to the same problem on a HR-S9500U.

Does anyone know what is causing this problem and exactly how to fix it? I would rather attempt the repair myself than turn it over to JVC if possible. I am rather good at soldering and board level repairs. I just do not have the diagnostic tools or the knowledge & experience to track this down. Any help would be most appreciated. I sure hope I am not mis-using the Forum by asking this question. If I am, just let me know and accept my apology.

Thanks again,
-Gary
_________________
Cars, Computers, Electronics, Women, Whatever ... for me it must be FAST!

Andy Cippico · Site Admin Joined: 18 Jan 2005 Posts: 80 Location: England

Hi Gary, and welcome to the forums.

I confess I know nothing about these machines. I don't know whether our resident JVC expert (Andywilks) has seen this post, but if he hasn't then it's worth PM'ing him to ask directly.

Good luck,
Andy.

andywilks · Posted: Sat Mar 01, 2008 12:15 pm Post subject:

Sorry, haven't been on the forum for a while

Flashing Auto on the little blue display. ? And on the tv picture- a blue screen with Auto tune being performed?
Is it trying to auto tune? ie progress bar going across on screen?
Some memory corruption problems can occur and the unit will do a 4 minute scan to reset tuning and set the clock. This is the only time I remember seeing the word Auto come up. You'll need to let it finish before it will go off.

If its not doing an autotune then I don't know what the problem is.

Head drum tilt motor problems are becoming common now on this series. Normally though upon first power on it will come on- buzz- buzz to check the head tilt FWD & back then go back to STBY. after which it will come on as normal. if a gear splits, this will jam the tilt mech and throw a different stuck in standby effect.

GDogFast · Joined: 07 Feb 2008 Posts: 3 Location: Laguna Hills, CA

Hi Andy,
Thanks for your reply and taking a stab at it. The flashing is on the LED display on the front panel of the machine itself, not on screen. It never gets far enough to go on screen. After that initial 2-sec "normal" LED display, it flashes "Auto" forever. Can't get it to do anything beyond that. Any ideas?

It's in the hands of a Tech right now, but he is stumped. Can't figure out what is wrong. It's Phoenix Audio & Video in Irvine, CA. This guy's a REAL tech too as far as I can tell. He tries to actually FIX things, not just replace whole modules like most of the Tech's these days. If it needs a few caps, he will replace those instead of the whole board. You almost have to do that anyway since parts are so scarce for these machines lately.
Thanks, -Gary
_________________
Cars, Computers, Electronics, Women, Whatever ... for me it must be FAST!

andywilks · Posted: Wed Mar 05, 2008 12:56 pm Post subject:

Doesnt sound like any fault I've had on a vcr. psu caps not normally a problem (except for on primary side).

Would get him to look at the tilting head worm gear/shaft having seized/jammed, as it is common and will stop unit initialising.

Sorry I can't help further

GDogFast · Joined: 07 Feb 2008 Posts: 3 Location: Laguna Hills, CA

Thanks Andy! He didn't think of that, so let's hope that's what it turns out to be. If you happen to think af anything else, please let me know.
Thanks again,
-Gary
_________________
Cars, Computers, Electronics, Women, Whatever ... for me it must be FAST!

adubs · Joined: 08 Mar 2008 Posts: 2

I'm having the same problem with a 7500 model. I took it to a local repair shop who replaced the power supply and said they had it working, but when I brought it home, it went right back to cutting out after a day.

My only other thought right now is that there is a power issue in my apartment building that's forcing a failsafe.

I'd be very interested if you'd post your results.

Thanks,

Adam

andywilks · Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2008 10:09 am Post subject:

Can you be a bit more specific on the actual symptom you get?

There is a common(ish) problem on these where the unit will be 'dead' usually after plugging back in, where it was ok before being unplugged.

The 7500 doesnt have the tilting head assembly so won't have the same initialisation problem.

I suspect if yours is turning off, back to standby then there will be another mechanism problem

The repair shop can't replace 'the power supply' its all part of the big circuit board.. they will have(or should have) replaced the 2 small start up resistors and a capacitor (unless yours actually blew up in which case there will be quite a few more bits have gone in)

adubs · Joined: 08 Mar 2008 Posts: 2

Thanks for the response. I'm not sure what they actually replaced, but I saw it working at the shop, and a short time after I brought it home, the same thing happened again: plug it in, the tuner turns on, after about 2 seconds, it quits back to standby. If I try to pop in a tape it barely enters the machine before it quits. But in the short time that it worked, it played, fast-forwarded and rewound.

I went back to the store to have them look at it, and it worked up there again. I bring it home, try it on numerous outlets, and nothing. The fuse inside looks okay. I don't know if I need to get a different one. I think it's T1LA 250V.

I also noticed this weekend that my replacement Xbox power cable (has a breaker in it because the early models caused fires) will not reset. It just keeps popping every time it's plugged in.

So now, I need to take both things into the bar where I work and try them there. Then, I guess I need to check the voltage throughout my apartment.

andywilks · Posted: Wed Mar 12, 2008 10:20 am Post subject:

Dealing just with the video... and not really believing there is any power voltage problem in the house.... the video mechanism can be intermittently jamming, hence sometimes ok othertimes on- 2s -then off.

watch out too these units are light sensitive.. ie they wont work in a light room with the top off!

RickWinkPa · Joined: 10 Dec 2008 Posts: 1

I had the same "Auto" timer problems with the VCR. I waited several Minutes for the “Auto” to switch to “--:--“ and then popped in a tape . I hit play and the tape started to play. I then went into setup mode than set the time of day. Because my cable provider does not have a sideband channel (PBS) with the time of day it can not find the time. The JVC vcr does not easily recover from this problem and the manual is not very clear. I hope this helps.