Video recorder sound recording problem

[rapido]

Hi all,

I have a Samsung SV-230BV video recorder which I bought 7 years ago.

Recently, it seems to have developed a fault where it records the sound very, very quiet. However playbacks are fine (except obviously when recordings are made with the machine itself).

I tried opening up and having a look, nothing seemed amiss. I cleaned the audio head with isopropanol, but I don't think that's at fault due to playbacks being fine.

Just thinking, would it be something as simple as a blown resistor or a dry capacitor needing replacing? And if so, any idea how would this by identified?

-regards
rapido

[torbjorn]

A common fault on older Samsung VCRs from the late eighties was that the connector at the erase head went open circuit due to incompatible platings on the pins and sockets causing an invisible but insulating oxide layer. This caused very weak sound recording as the erase- and bias oscillator stopped working without the load of the erase head. Of course, if there was a previous recording on the same video tape, its sound would not be erased either.

The solution to this problem was simply cutting the connector off and solder the wires directly to the pins of the erase head.

In seldom cases, the transistor in the erase oscillator could fail as a secondary fault, i think that this usually caused a fuse or fusible resistor in the power supply to blow.