Any ideas on how to fix VHS tapes that play for a while then lock up in the player? This only happens to some.

Question

Using Sharp VC-A220 VHS Player

tapes are around 18 years old

tapes are 180 mins long

Answer 1

This is a problem with any old tapes. You can try fast forwarding them, then rewinding & then play. Or if you know  how to advance the tape manually over the bad spots you can try that. You'll need to push up into the small hole under the video cassette, then turn your take-up reel (the one on the  right if you look at it from the top & facing into the machine).

I actually had an old VCR chassis geared up & powered the take-up side to fast forward only just for this purpose. But if you have several tapes it can become time consuming.

Answer 2

Hi Rob,

Fast forward and then rewind before playing them. That will exercise them and reduce the torque required to turn the cassette.

If you, as you indicate, are having a lot of them lock up I think you should try a different player as well. You might have a weak motor or sticky drive rollers in your player.

You can pick up another unit to try at a yard sale for $5.00

Norm