Portastudio MF-P01 repair?

Strangefella

New member
My MF-P01 isn't recording to tape. I have lights on my input indicator, so I'm getting input. Then, when I play back the tape, nothing has actually recorded. Is this a common, fixable problem?
I love this machine and it would be great to get it working again.
Thank you for your time.

-Strangefella
 
I'm pretty new at this stuff, but one thing I would check is if there is actually sound being recorded onto the tape.
Do you have another cassette player? If so, you can play your 'recorded' cassette on that to see if you're definitively recording audio on the Portastudio. If you are, then it's an output issue, I think. It sounds like you're not seeing any lights in the meters during playback.

In that case, it could be blown capacitors, which I think is a common issue.
How common? I'm dealing with one right now, in a Porta02mkII.
 
Thanks for your response! It does seem to be a playback issue. My MF-P01 won't play any tapes at all. Blown capacitors, huh? Are there any plans/schematics or videos that will help with this? I do have basic soldering skills, I'll just need to know what parts to order.
Thanks again!
 
This is awesome. Thank you!
This repair just might be beyond my paygrade, but the caps should be cheap enough so there's not much risk in trying.
Let me know if you get your Portastudio working again.
 
That's awesome to hear, Strangefella.
To update my situation...I never had to swap out the capacitors! Phew. I assume there was some weird power issue due to a funny power strip. Can that happen? No clue! But what happened was: other stuff in my room started acting funny right around the same time. So, while my Porta02mkII would turn on, it had trouble with tape speed and output. But that all magically went away when I swapped the power strip.

I'm glad yours is back up and running!
 
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