OT: Sony DAT PCM-R300 "CAUTION" displayed

[Blue Jinn]

Hello,

I know, off topic, but I don't know where else to post this.

So I haven't used this deck in about three months or so. Forgot and left the tape in. Went to fire it up, and got a "CAUTION" warning on the display. No functions (including eject) work. I carefully removed the tape (nothing critical on the tape though) Manual says this warning is caused by condensation and recommends leaving on for an hour or so, then cycling power.

Did that, (in fact several times several hours) no joy. For several tries very little would happen on powering back up. Now the drum will spin and the left spindle will spin. If I manually open the door while powered down, it will also return to normal position. Then CAUTION.

I've searched here and elsewhere, it seems a common problem, but I've not seen any troubleshooting tips that have worked. Any advice appreciated. I got a copy of the service manual online, but can't find any reference to any kind of moisture sensor or detector or any way to defeat one.

Both belts seem to be intact, and whatever gears are accessible without disassembly seem to move, if with some tension.


All help appreciated!

 

[moranpro]

Unfortunately, I cannot help you - just encountered the same error myself and am hoping you will share how you carefully removed the tape?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Blue Jinn]

Unfortunately, I cannot help you - just encountered the same error myself and am hoping you will share how you carefully removed the tape?

Thanks in advance.

I moved the gear on the left of the transport which opened the door and moved the lifters slightly, enough for me to pull the tape from the head and the tape out. It's still crinkled a bit, but mostly intact. Check tapeheads.net for a similar thread by me. There's a few suggestions there that I haven't tried yet, and there's a video on YouTube about switches underneath the transport that get stuck. So there's about half dozen troubleshooting tips, altogether, and I've tried two of them so far.

If I succeed I'll post back here, and appreciate the same.

 

[moranpro]

Actually, warming up my unit, then power cycling it, did the trick and the DAT ejected normally. But, it still will not play. Two DAT machines... neither will play. Sheesh.