Onkyo tape deck with weird problem

I have an Onkyo TA-RW244 dual cassette deck that's developed a couple of problems, one of which is very strange. The other day I was working on my equipment stack and I heard a whirring noise. I knew none of my components has a fan, so I looked for the source of the noise and I found that the capstans on deck B were spinning. A few power cycles revealed that the capstans on deck B now spin anytime power is applied to the unit, even if it's in standby mode. I then tried playing a tape to see if this problem affected the use of the deck. The tape played, but only one channel produced audio, the other one didn't even register on the built-in level meter. I didn't try recording anything. Deck A works fine.

Has anyone ever encountered a problem like this? The unit is less than 4 years old and has been used very lightly. It's only plugged into a cheap surge protector, but I've never had any surge damage whatsoever to any other equipment, even items not protected.

Reply to
Jim Shaffer
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Sounds like the sort of problem cased by a bad connection, or possibly dried out electrolytic capacitors. Highly unlikely it was damaged by any external cause.

Reply to
James Sweet

It is not uncommon for the capstan motor to turn when the power is on and a cassette is in the mechanism. Try removing the cassette and see if the motor stops. Either way, there's not much you can do about disabling the motor in stop mode.

Simple explanations to your one channel out problem could be a dirty tape head or a broken head wire.

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David Farber
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Reply to
David Farber

The capstan motor runs without a cassette in the deck. The one on deck A doesn't.

Reply to
Jim Shaffer

Not familiar with this particular machine. So, this is worth what it cost you:

  1. Some machines use leaf or micro switches to sense the presence and type of inserted cassettes...usually on the back side of the cassette. Check to see if one or more of these switches is blocked with debris or bent.
  2. If the unit uses a mechanical push-push power switch, are you sure it is actually turning off? I've seen dual cassette decks in which one side is designed to run continuously with the power on.
  3. Other than nostalgia, why are you still using cassettes?
Reply to
webpa

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