u/RampagingRex

Thanks for all of your helpful suggestions on my post from last week about this VCR. I found that the issue was a broken solder joint on the record switch that fits into the notch on the tape. I tried a few blank tapes and it recognizes each one and allows me to start recording. The problem is that while the VCR does enter record mode and "REC" is displayed on the LCD, it doesn't actually record to the tape. I recorded an hour long video and when I rewound to watch it back, the tape was still completely blank.

I've cleaned the mode switch and all the heads, tried both SP and SLP speeds, and the VCR works wonderfully when playing tapes normally. What else could I be missing here?

This is my childhood VCR, and it hasn't been able to record tapes in over 15 years. I finally disassembled it to clean and figured I'd try to address the problem while I'm in here. No matter what blank tape I try, it always ejects the tape as soon as I press record. Every so often, it will hesitate for half a second and look like it's starting to record, but it always ejects the tape right after. My guess is that it's the record switch at the bottom left. Gonna try to clean and touch up the solder on it tomorrow, but I'd appreciate any other suggestions.