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DCR-HC26 with C:31:23 "Reinsert Cassette" error message

Just inherited a Sony Digital [mini]Cassette Recorder Handicam 26 (DCR-HC26) from daughter (w/ 2 young sons, so need lots of flicks of grandsons). She sensibly went for a no-moving cassettes "flash" memory videocam.

And just as I'm about to transfer all the existing cassettes to DVD, I get the dread C:31:23 "Reinsert Cassette" error message. I've used the VCR-mode/battery out/battery back in drill mentioned in this forum, and that works for a bit.

The rubber take-up (or whatever its function) roller seems still intact--an itsy-bitsy stainless pressure washer seems to be holding it in place OK.

I've swabbed out the capstan and video head w/ anhydrous isopropyl alcohol (carefully), but now I'm thinking that the "mode gears" might be the culprit. But I can't locate it as Chieh Chang has photographed them in extreme close-up. I gather that they're to the rear of the cassette compartment (the "eyepiece end"), but also have a hunch that Mr. Chieh (do I have the surname correct?) had removed some panelling in order to access the mode gear(s). If so, what should I remove?

Also: I don't find any button battery compartment for the parameter ram (PRAM or "P-RAM") backup (or clock backup battery, as it's sometimes called--I'm used to the Apple terminology, with their "gestalt manager" doing its inventory of system & software on boot-up, and a four-key "chord" to re-set the parameter ram. Should I assume that the recessed reset button performs the same function, but only a paperclip is needed.

So, can anyone post a context series of pix ("establishing shot, medium shot, close-up, extreme-close-up") or provide instructions in words, on how to get to the mode gears, the backup battery...?

Also does anyone know what the little access door, on the camera behind the battery, is for. Seems there's a yellow-bodied 4-prong male "micro-plug" inside, perhaps for diagnostics?

Finally, I can't believe Sony doesn't provide repair manuals and/or at least a list of error codes and their explanation. Apple provided these from the get-go--at least beginning with the Macs--I never had an Apple II or a Lisa to explore. (Of course, if I remember correctly, there were two codes, 1011 and 1012 I think it was, that had no or little explanation--and we'd hit them regularly.)

And no email addresses for customer support. Though they do offer this excuse at: http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/contact-relation.pl?, namely, "Sony believes that communication regarding such concerns is best conducted through personal interaction with our dedicated customer service teams."

However, this old semi-senescent half-geek believes, au contraire, that Sony is wrong--companies who sell products, particularly hardware/software computer products--and that you have meet the customer more than halfway. If they use fax, have fax machines; email, set up semi-automated email readers; on-line chat is not bad if the customer can type quickly and has mastered that most difficult and high-tech component of communication, called Writing."

TIA.

PS: As to slamming the camera on a hard surface or tensed palm has a prior incarnation in the analog world--I learned it in the US Draft: "If it doesn't fit, get a bigger hammer." Also known as "field expedients," "military heuristics," and, nowadays in our once-every-four-years-lets-have-a-war-whether-we-need-one-or-not-to-help-decrease-the-excess-population-and-glom-onto-everyone-else's-'Petrochemicals', it's "Suck it up, soldier, and make do." (Implicit is the threat that if you don't, the command structure can invite some friendly fire to visit you--and that kind of fire is not for roasting marshmallows, as Pat Tillman discovered. (I like to refer to it not as "friendly fire" or "fratricide," but rather "supervised suicide," as it too has a nice succession of sibilants, and don't we all love alliteration?

XIVAgroupLeider
Tue, 03 Jan 2012 06:18:15 +0300

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