UCB Parents Advice about Household Management
How to Dislodge a Tape stuck in VCR
Advice and recommendations from the UCB Parents mailing list.
This page is brought to you by UC Berkeley Parents Network
Back to: Advice about Household Management
July 2002
We have a newborn and a 22 month old and the other day
the Elephant Show video tape got stuck in the VCR - a major
tragedy. So, we ran out to Costco to pick a new VCR for the
interim. My question is has anyone found an inexpensive
solution to getting a stuck video out of a VCR? I'm pretty sure
the actual tape is stuck and/or broken in there - I'm not
concerned about recovering the tape, I'd just like to keep the
VCR operational for the 2nd TV without having to spend a
million dollars to get this VCR fixed. :)
Hectic parent...
Try carefully inserting a screwdriver and pushing forward on the
cassette while simultaneously pressing the eject button. Push
gently but firmly on various parts of the cassette until it pops
loose. (If that doesn't work, use the screwdriver to pry the
sucker out!)
Patrick
When my son's favorite tape got stuck in VCR, I just unplugged
it and, with a screw drive, opened up the top of VCR. I could
access to the inside of VCR now, gently removed a tape from it,
and screwed the top of VCR back on.
It may not be the best way to get your tape out of it, since you
have a chance of breaking VCR itself. However, I think it may
be worth trying since you cannot use that VCR with a video tape
stuck in it anyway. It has always worked for me.
Mika
Re:VCR with the tape stuck in it. My husband successfully
unscrewed the top piece off our VCR, and we were able to pull
the tape out of it. Since this VCR had had the problem before,
we just left the top of it sitting in its place, but not screwed
together, for subsequent stuck tapes. It has worked this way
for several years, occasionally needing a tape pulled out of
it. It's possible to carefully take the tape out without
ruining it. You might want to get a headcleaner apparatus and
run that through once you get the tape out. Good luck.
Elaine
sometimes, if you unplug the VCR for a suitable period of time (1 hour
to 1 day), then plug it back in, you can then hit the ''eject'' button
and the tape will come out. (unplugging it seems to get the VCR to
forget that it thinks it is ''empty''.)
Greg
The opinions and statements expressed on this page
are those of parents who belong to the
UC Berkeley Parents Network and
should not be taken as a position of or endorsement by the
University of California, Berkeley.