Expert: cleggsan - 9/27/2005

Question
i have a 13 inch tv/vcr combo sylvania and it is only five years old. it worked fine and i put at video in it and it was playing the video fine and i had to move the tv and when i unplugged it and put where it needed to be when i turned it on it will stay on like 10 secionds and cut back off. It has the word eject on the screen and i push eject and it wont give me the tape back. What do i do to fix it? thank you for you help.
Jenifer  

Answer
If you unplugged it with a tape inside that procedure has probably messed up the internal cpu or integrated circuit that controls the functions of the set.

So, it must be reset and restored to its factory settings.  To do this merely unplug the power cord and leave it unplugged for at least 4 hours. It takes this long to totally discharge all the memory cells inside the unit.  Then power it up again and check it out.

After the reset above if it still does not eject the tape there may be a mechanical problem.  For this there are all sorts of things you can try.  I refer you to www.fixer.com which has a database of things you can do to get a stuck tape out and get the tape mechanism working again.

From this site, for example, you will find a section on Sylvania vcrs that has suggestions on removing a tape.  You can find it at:

http://www.fixer.com/dbase/syl/vc4360at01p5.shtml#TAR4

There are other sites that can help you, depending on the symptoms. While this site deals with standalone vcrs, you should consider the deck portion of your combo unit the same as an independent vcr.

And, while you may not find the exact model number of your combo unit, you can refer to a model similar in nature and the instructions would be about the same.

So, try these ideas and come back to me if you need further help, giving me the outcome of the things you tried.

Thanks for choosing allexperts.

Cleggsan