JVC VCR Problems for Model HR-

J321EM-No power

A customer sent me a JVC HR-J312EM model VCR for repair. The complaint
was no power. I personally don’t repair VCR because I’m more on computer monitor
repair. Because of he is a friend of mine; I told him that I’m willing to take the
challenge to repair it. Repairing VCR at my era actually has begun to go obsolete
because of the market filled with VCD players.
 
VCD player is cheaper than VCR and compact in term of the size. Back then, many
people sent their compact disc and laser disc players to electronic repair shop to
convert the players into VCD player. What the technicians do was to add in a mpeg or
VCD card and tapped the EFM RF signal from the DSP ic.
 
When you buy the VCD card, it came along with a list of the DSP ic part numbers and
pin out and shown you at where you suppose to tap the signal. It was a 15- 20 minutes
job and you could earn a lot from it. But now, everyone is using DVD player and
VCD already obsolete.
 
Come back to the VCR player, after
opened up the casing and placed my
probe on the two pins of the main
filter capacitor, I could see the
capacitor still holding the charge. If
the voltage present at the capacitor
pins, this tells us that the main ac
voltage is coming in, the fuse and the
bridge rectifier is working. There
must be a reason as to why the main
filter capacitor still holding the
charge.
 
By following the positive marking pin
of the main filter capacitor, I traced
the line circuit and saw two high
ohms resistors connected in series.
These two resistors are called start up
resistors. The function of the start up resistors is to reduce the dc voltage to a lower
value where it can then be supplied to the oscillator circuit and switch the power fet.
 
If either one of the start up resistor developed an open circuit, there would be no
supply voltage to the oscillator circuit and the power fet would not switch. Therefore
no ac voltage produced at the secondary side of the power supply.

For the above VCR, I found

a start up resistor (220 kilo
ohms ) open circuit and
causing no power
symptom. Other
components such as the
power fet, filter capacitor
and diodes found to be in
good condition. For your
information, if either one of
the start up resistor spoilt,
you have to replace both
otherwise the other one
would become defective
after in service for
sometime. Replacements of
the two resistors brought

the VCR back to life again.

 

Conclusion, whether you are repairing the JVC HR-J312EM model VCR or any kind
of electronic equipment, if you came across the main filter capacitor still holding the
charge even with power off, suspect a defective start up resistors. However, certain
electronic equipment power supply designed, the capacitor may still hold charge even
the start up resistors seems to be working. In this case you have to use other
troubleshooting techniques to solve it. Please refer back to my website for more
electronic troubleshooting tips.