From: bjjlyates@NOSPAMbellsouth.net   
      
   On 8/1/09 10:03 AM, in article qki875p3h3p1uh631j71q6iqaq26296iiq@4ax.com,   
   "Ira"  wrote:   
      
   > Greets,   
   >   
   > I use actual TRS-80 cassette players/recorders to read and convert   
   > tapes people send to me for retrieval.  Mysteriously overnight (worked   
   > last night just fine, but not this morning) the player I am using wont   
   > let the PLAY button stay down; it just clicks loudly (as if it had a   
   > tape which was at its end) and pops back up.  If I hold the button   
   > down, a rapid series of the clicks and attempts to pop.  This applies   
   > to many tapes, so it is the recorder.   
   >   
   > Any idea what is going on and how to fix it?   
   >   
   > Thanks!   
      
   Look near the play head - you should see what is most often a white piece of   
   plastic that sticks up toward the tape. Press it down (away from where the   
   cassette would be) and make sure it goes down and comes back up. This is the   
   piece that causes a tape to cutoff if it senses tension.   
      
   It needs to move freely. It may have gotten something jammed in it keeping   
   it down, or the spring on the end (inside the recorder where you can't see   
   it) may have popped out. I've never looked at that end.   
      
   Sounds fixable. I once had a TI-rebadged GE recorder suddenly lock all its   
   keys. I never could figure that one out! Similar to when you remove the   
   write-protect from a cassette and try to press record, except this locked   
   ALL of them!   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)