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Specific cassette wont play when I lock the play button in place.

DordTrain

DordTrain

New Member
I bought a brand new, never opened cassette. I tried playing it but it slowed down and stopped. So I tried troubleshooting.

  1. Tape is able to play if I press the play button down as far as I can but do not lock it in place. It is able to play fine. But as soon as I press it down all the way, and the button locks, the reels stop.
  2. Tape is able to be fast forwarded and rewound, which means that it isn't the reels that are blocking it. Something is blocking the tape that is near the head.
  3. I let it fast forward and reverse multiple times to free up any stuck tape. This did not fix anything.
  4. The deck is not broken, I tried the same tape in multiple decks and the problem still persists, even down to the pressing of the play button.
  5. The tape is a has a cream white opaque case. There are no screws in it.
  6. I have a second tape that looks to be the exact same shell, and it plays fine. making me think that the problem is on the inside of the tape?
  7. When the play button is pressed all the way down, and the tape reels stop. I can apply force on the right side of the Walkman, which presses down on the cassette, and makes it speed up a bit. Maybe when I do that, something on the left of the tape is being freed up?
  8. The Tape is ELO's Time album. Produced by Jet Stereo Cassette in 1981 (CBS Inc.)
  9. Even though it wasn't the deck's fault, I still cleaned all pins, rollers, and heads. Nothing changed.
I hope you guys can help me because this tape is my favorite album and I got it brand new. Wouldn't want to throw it away.
 
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Have you tried rotating the tape manually, say with a finger or with a Bic pen? How hard is it? When you wind the tape end to end, do not stop and do it with the cassette oriented horizontally not vertically. Also, after you rewound the tape, try squishing it a bit to make sure the reel is completely flat.

You say, it is a walkman? How's the w&w? If the belt is on the verge of slipping, it would not pull a stiff tape.

P.S. Nothing like this would ever happen with an MP3 file :)

 
Lemme see the integrity of the felt pad, please. If it's sat unopened for nearly 40 years, it could have fallen off or disintegrated. Depending on how it's been stored all these decades, the adhesive holding it in place might have dried out many moons ago...
 
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Late Boomer said:
Have you tried rotating the tape manually, say with a finger or with a Bic pen? How hard is it? When you wind the tape end to end, do not stop and do it with the cassette oriented horizontally not vertically. Also, after you rewound the tape, try squishing it a bit to make sure the reel is completely flat.

You say, it is a walkman? How's the w&w? If the belt is on the verge of slipping, it would not pull a stiff tape.

P.S. Nothing like this would ever happen with an MP3 file :)

Click to expand...
AGh I know the mp3 is out there but I just love having music in a physical form, it feels more real when it takes up space. And yes I have tried doing all that to no avail, sadly. Rotating the tape manually felt the same on both the non working and working one.
 
benricci said:
Lemme see the integrity of the felt pad, please. If it's sat unopened for nearly 40 years, it could have fallen off or disintegrated. Depending on how it's been stored all these decades, the adhesive holding it in place might have dried out many moons ago...
Click to expand...
Here, but I don't know how a slightly disintegrated felt pad could stop the entire machine from turning
IMG_20200430_195431.jpg
ABOVE IS WORKING ELTON JOHN CASSETTE
Screenshot_20200430-201155.png
ABOVE IS NON WORKING ELO CASSETTE
 
Late Boomer said:
Have you tried rotating the tape manually, say with a finger or with a Bic pen? How hard is it? When you wind the tape end to end, do not stop and do it with the cassette oriented horizontally not vertically. Also, after you rewound the tape, try squishing it a bit to make sure the reel is completely flat.

You say, it is a walkman? How's the w&w? If the belt is on the verge of slipping, it would not pull a stiff tape.

P.S. Nothing like this would ever happen with an MP3 file :)

Click to expand...
Oh and about the walkman thing, it plays all other tapes PERFECTLY. Plus I have tried the tape in multiple decks and it still doesn't work.
 
Is it a split (screws together) shell? It sounds like the shell is shifting when the head goes into the shell... if you can transfer it, it should play.

if you can’t get it apart, check all the dimensions and openings against one that dies play. I think you have a bad shell.
 
Unless you have the need to while away a bunch of time and increase your frustration level, toss it.
Your tape could have been stored in a hot attic, who knows?
My policy is to check the pad, FF, RW a couple of times, if problem still exists, into the garbage can it goes.
Just not worth my time, cassettes aren't exactly rare...
My opinion, of course.
 
Some are rare, with material not released on any other format. I have no idea if this tape in question is one of those, but it seems like a mechanical problem, which should be easy enough to solve.
 
j!m said:
Is it a split (screws together) shell? It sounds like the shell is shifting when the head goes into the shell... if you can transfer it, it should play.

if you can’t get it apart, check all the dimensions and openings against one that dies play. I think you have a bad shell.
Click to expand...
Sadly it is not a screw shell, and yeah it's probably a bad shell, I just love the shell so much because it lists all the songs and rrr.
 
OBMG74 said:
Unless you have the need to while away a bunch of time and increase your frustration level, toss it.
Your tape could have been stored in a hot attic, who knows?
My policy is to check the pad, FF, RW a couple of times, if problem still exists, into the garbage can it goes.
Just not worth my time, cassettes aren't exactly rare...
My opinion, of course.
Click to expand...
I have tried FF and RW but to no avail. I am not going to throw it out, I can still play it but I just have to hold the play button down without locking it in place.
 
If I was in your position, I'd grab my caliper and check the size of the "windows" in the bottom of the shell, discover which one(s) are too small, CAREFULLY pull the leader out of the way and go at it with a razor and/or Dremel tool to get them to the right size.

If it FF and REW with no problem, the tape and hubs are OK. I really think when the head comes fully up into the shell, it is fouling on the shell and this is causing the hubs to bind in the shell.

Not difficult, but delicate...
 
j!m said:
If I was in your position, I'd grab my caliper and check the size of the "windows" in the bottom of the shell, discover which one(s) are too small, CAREFULLY pull the leader out of the way and go at it with a razor and/or Dremel tool to get them to the right size.

If it FF and REW with no problem, the tape and hubs are OK. I really think when the head comes fully up into the shell, it is fouling on the shell and this is causing the hubs to bind in the shell.

Not difficult, but delicate...
Click to expand...
Could you tell me what you mean by the windows? Is that where the tape runs across? Or is that at the bottom where it decides if you can record over it or not.
 
At the bottom, where the tape passes. The center opening is where the head goes in- where the felt pad is. I suspect that window may be too small in one or both directions, and fouling on the head.

The outer windows are where the pinch roller and erase head enter the tape path. Those might be OK but they are worth checking as well, since the pinch roller might be what's fouling, rather than the head, and therefore not spinning, so it then acts like a brake to hold the tape rather than feeding the tape. The capstan shaft may be spinning as it should but the pinch roller is what regulates it against the shaft, because the capstan is spinning against the slick back side of the tape. The rubber roller is on the oxide side. If that roller is not rolling, the tape won't be moving.

Check the windows.
 
j!m said:
At the bottom, where the tape passes. The center opening is where the head goes in- where the felt pad is. I suspect that window may be too small in one or both directions, and fouling on the head.

The outer windows are where the pinch roller and erase head enter the tape path. Those might be OK but they are worth checking as well, since the pinch roller might be what's fouling, rather than the head, and therefore not spinning, so it then acts like a brake to hold the tape rather than feeding the tape. The capstan shaft may be spinning as it should but the pinch roller is what regulates it against the shaft, because the capstan is spinning against the slick back side of the tape. The rubber roller is on the oxide side. If that roller is not rolling, the tape won't be moving.

Check the windows.
Click to expand...
Right, got it. Thanks :)
 
j!m said:
Some are rare, with material not released on any other format. I have no idea if this tape in question is one of those
Click to expand...
This album literally sold hundreds of thousands of copies in this country alone, and it's simply not rare or hard to find. In fact the CD with 3 bonus tracks is currently $3.79 on Amazon with free Prime shipping.

https://www.amazon.com/Time-Electric-Light-Orchestra/dp/B003W77SC6

I don't think it's worth the trouble to try to fix this tape, but that's just me. I'd have simply bought another copy and moved on by now (probably on another format than cassette, to be honest).
 
benricci said:
This album literally sold hundreds of thousands of copies in this country alone, and it's simply not rare or hard to find. In fact the CD with 3 bonus tracks is currently $3.79 on Amazon with free Prime shipping.

https://www.amazon.com/Time-Electric-Light-Orchestra/dp/B003W77SC6

I don't think it's worth the trouble to try to fix this tape, but that's just me. I'd have simply bought another copy and moved on by now (probably on another format than cassette, to be honest).
Click to expand...
I've listened to the album probably 100 times but I just wanted to have the cassette of it.
 
How about recording from record or CD to cassette?
Factory cassette is probably nothing to write home about....
 
In the 70s, on a number of occasions when I had a cassette I just didn't want to give up on, I was able to carefully split open the glued cassette shell and transfer the tape into another shell that could be assembled with screws. It's a pain in the ass, but it can be done. I still have a couple of them.
 
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