Is There Any Way To Fix VHS Tape That Have Stopped Running (1 Viewer)

[Andrew_Sch]

I was reading the Sports Guys' latest mailbag over at ESPN.com's Page 2 and he commented that his tapes of some great SNL shows from the mid-80's had stopped working and asked if there was any way they could be repaired. Being the loyal reader I am, I thought I'd ask you guys for some assistance for my favorite columnist.

 

[Jeff Kleist]

The tape has gotten wound unevenly, and gets too tight to run at a certain spot. He needs to CAREFULLY unwind the entire tape and rewind it BY HAND

 

[Kevin M]

I agree unless the tape had broken in which case he can trim the crumpled tape out and splice the two "good" halves together.

 

[Jesse Skeen]

I've heard that splicing videotape can damage the heads- I spliced one tape (using splicing tape only on the side of the tape that doesn't touch the head) and didn't have any problem with it but I got worried and threw it out. If you have a tape that breaks in the middle that's irreplacable, it's a better idea to cannibalize the shell of a blank tape and put half the broken tape into that.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

If done carefully, splicing two halves of a tape back together is completly harmless. I used to be the offcial tape repair man at the video store where I used to work and performed this on a regular basis to dozens of tapes. Sometimes it was necissary to perform what I used to call a "reel transplant", it involved taking the shell apart of the busted tape and transplanting the reels over to a new shell.

Basically, their was nothing so wrong with a tape that I could not fix, except this one time when a woman left one of our tapes in her car on a day when it was 100 dgrees in the shade and it melted the tape and the shell. I had a big box with spare parts that I used to keep in the back in case I needed a new spring or rollers, that sort of thing.

So yes indeed, they can be fixed no matter what the problem is pretty much.

 

[george kaplan]

Just tell them to buy D-VHS in the future. From what I've read on other threads, those will last thousands of years and never need replacing.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

 

[Randall Dorr]

I spilled orange juice on a tape. Would it really work to just cut out the damaged bit and splice the other two ends together? Or is there any chance I could still clean the tape?

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

Randall,
unfortunatly I think in that case, the tape is pretty much screwed.

 

[DeathStar1]

>>I've heard that splicing videotape can damage the heads- I spliced one tape (using splicing tape only on the side of the tape that doesn't touch the head) and didn't have any problem with it but I got worried and threw it out. >>
Ahh, tape horror stories. I'm full of 'em , since I'm the only oen who's known how to work a VCR in the house since 1984. And I was born in 78, so that tells you who the technology nut in the familly is . Although, I have had my fair share of mistakes, namley leaving a popscicle stick on the top of a tape, and almost sticking it in the VCR while putting the other tape away, heh...
But as far as the above goes, I was worried too that it might be damaging my VCR. I've had litterally two dozen or more tapes in my basement for a while now. Just recently, I've decided to go through 'em all, and peice different ones together in hopes of dwindling down the storage. This is all in preperation of getting a DVD recorder, so I can get rid of them for good.
I was also doing this two years ago. When I was younger, I didn't think to ask my parents to get another tape for me, and just kept on recording over stuff, not really caring if TV shows where in order or not. Now that I'm older, I wanted 'em to be easier to find if I needed 'em, so I went through all my classic tapes, and put about 100 show eps in order, and even found a few lucky finds that I thought I had lost long ago again .
I have about the last 8 remaining sets in a bag next to me here, a set of sciscors, and a scotch tape real ready to go when I get a chance to FF through 'em all..