AKAI X201D recording disables itself.

DSD-13

Active Member
I have an AKAI X201D that has been cleaned. Everything works great and smoothly.

I tried the record function a few times for some seconds, it worked. When I was ready to record something longer, I set it to record function, but it did not record.

VU meters peg. Input or rec level control has no effect.
The recording light turns on briefly, when the lever is halfway between playback and record, when on full record mode it turns off.
Tape spools continue to spin as normal.
Bias head engages as normal.

Moving the bias head down changes VU meter levels.
Switching equalizer switch around makes VU meters jump around.

No recording is made but it does seem to erase the tape. I do hear clicks on the tape from when I turned the switch to record function.

I have been trying the record function for half an hour now, and so far it only worked two times.

The first time the light stayed on for a few second and the meters responded as usual. Then there was a loud clunk and the meters pegged, recording light went off.

The second time it recorded I turned the switch back to playback function, then to record, and it went back to pegged meters and recording light off.
 
There's a slide switch on the the record / play board of the X201D that has many contacts in it. These contacts get dirty and need to be sprayed with contact cleaner and exercised to get the corrosion out of them. Also the linkage from the record / play lever should be checked, it may not be moving the slide switch over far enough to fully engage the record mode.

The play / record amp board in the X201D is connected by plug-in edge connectors which may be dirty or loose so check that connection point too. Lastly one of the screws that holds the board in is also responsible for grounding part of it, so if the screws aren't tight or if they are corroded you may have a grounding issue.

If all of those things are OK then you may have bad transistors on the board, but the fact that the record light comes on sometimes and the deck records intermittently makes it sound to me like a dirty record slide switch or a simple linkage problem. BTW if you've had it apart and had the board out before make sure that you pulled the spring loaded slide switch over and clicked it into the linkage properly. The left and right slide switches are linked together and must be pulled to one side when the play / record lever is in the stop position and move all the way over when the deck is shifted into record mode.
 
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