OT svhs camcorder no switching on

[G r o g]

There is so much expertise on this group I hope someone might be able to help me with this. During a clearout today I came across a Mitsubish C35 SVHS camcorder and all it's gubbins including a number of tapes both svhs and standard VHS, some of which have content I'd like to check before binning the whole lot, one in particular. It used to be said that the completely dead fault was one of the simplest to fix when I were a lad... Things have changed! Both batteries are flat, unsurprisingly. One is on-charge now. The charger has a direct port for the camera but that isn't working either. Does anyone have an idea how I might proceed?

[Davey]

You could do what I did in a similar situation, and buy another battery. This should then provide enough power for the Reset button to work, and from there, you should be able to charge the batteries. This was on a Sony. With the dead battery, nothing would work at all, not even the charging system, which is in the camera.

[Brian Gaff]

Find a manual, and if you do not understand modern electronics find somebody who does. Merely poking about might do more harm and good. There are so many places to worry about with something which has not been switched on for years its hard to know where to begin. Lots of belts and mechanical parts, may on the rubber ones may have perished. Capacitors in power supplies dried out. If the batteries were dead, you may find they are knackered. Most videos have protection for the heads as well so any issues that stop bits moving will be seen as a reason not to go. Do any lights glow anywhere? Any clicking noises when you touch things like buttons etc? The best way, a little late now, to preserve these things is to run them at least every 6 months or so. Any lubricant will be like sticky goo if not used as well. I would think if its just the tapes you need then it might be better to look for a cheap svhs machine which still runs and use that.

Brian

[newshound]

+1, alternatively there are plenty of places which will rip camcorder tapes to digital (which is what I did, when I had essentially the same problem).

[G r o g]

Both batteries charged up and read 6.5v off-load (it's a 6 volt system)The charger, which is a stand-alone unit with a socket to supply power to the camera directly reads 6.7v off-load so it seems power is getting to the cam but not doing anything. There is no reset button that I can see, the user manual doesn't mention one. I got the "special tool" out (small hammer) but not tried it yet... Looks like it's dead in the water, shame. Thanks for your input, much appreciated. If any further thoughts occur please let me know.

[Davey]

The reset button is usually a tiny recessed one, which needs a paper clip to push. Keep looking, especially in the area where the tape is held. Strange that the manual doesn't mention one, though.

[Tim+]

Does it have a separate clock battery (button cell probably)? Can?t see why this would stop it powering up but if it has one, it would be worth replacing it.

Tim

[G r o g]

Thanks for that, but I replaced the CR2025 clock battery last night but no joy.

[rick]

I have an old Panasonic SHVS desk and used that to convert all my tapes to DVD I'd offer to do this for you but have sold my video capture unit. (Canopus 110)

I used ... VHS deck > TBC > Video capture unit> video to PC via Firewire and audio via separate audio connection. Run winDV a free program that takes care of capturing the audio & video as a DV file. Then I used VirtualDub (free) and its amazing array of post processing plugins (eg remove VHS noise, colour correct, de-interlace, stabilize) and turn those nasty VHS recordings into a decent digital video files.

Bought TBC & Video Capture unit off eBay and sold them for same price after completing the job.

If you get a physical way fwd ... lost of tips here: