Manual for Sony Betamax SL-3030 VTR?

[Phil Nelson]

I hauled out our venerable Sony SL-3030 Beta machine after a long hiatus and discovered that it won't accept a cassette. It is powering up, both with the front switch and the little auto-switch that engages when you insert a cassette. At the point where you expect the machine to wake up and pull in the cassette, nothing happens. I don't see anything obviously broken or hanging up in the levers & gizmos that are visible from above (without pulling out the chassis). I don't see any fuses in easy reach except for one soldered onto a board near the rear, and that one tests OK.

Any chance of getting a service manual? A quick Internet search revealed nothing at the Sony site (ha-ha) and the usual evil manual hucksters.

Thanks for any help. We are housecleaning and I want to play (at least briefly) a multitude of old tapes before disposing of them, just in case we recorded something priceless over what's scribbled on the label.

Regards,

Phil Nelson
Phil's Old Radios
http://antiqueradio.org/index.html