Turned on my old Sony DTC-790 DAT machine and am getting a “CAUTION” message. Googled a bit and found people saying it’s because the grease has dried out. Found the manual and inside it says:
“CAUTION” appears and the deck cannot be operated.
-> A safety mechanism is operating because of condensation. Remove the cassette and leave the deck turned on for about an hour. Then turn the deck off, then on again (see page 18).
So I’ll give it a try – hope that’s all it is!
UPDATE 9/10/10
Alpha Electronics says it’ll be $245 to fix the ‘mechanical assembly’, so that’s that…