Hello everyone! I have a DCC 600 that I purchased in March directly from the DCC Museum so it has been completely refurbished with new belts and pinch rollers. Yet it still seems to have a snag. Occasionally during playback, or while fast forwarding, the tape counter will freeze up and then recover after a few seconds. Sometimes this happens back to back several times. While this is happening, the machine will also be unresponsive to any button presses. Music playback is not interrupted, but I am unable to stop playback until it recovers. I have read through the forums and haven’t seen any reports of this occurring. It’s possible I may of missed something though.
At first I thought it might be another symptom of the stick slip effect but I just tried putting in a fresh, never used, blank tape with a brown felt pad and it happened as soon as I started fast forwarding. It happens on another tape as well so it seems to be something with the machine. Any ideas on what could be causing this?
Hi and welcome,
This happens on occasion with the 2nd generation machines. When the track information can’t be processed correctly this can occur. Sometimes only pressing stop wil help, but I have seen occasions were I would have to wait or power off the machine.
Thanks for the reply. Could it possibly have something to do with it attempting to “read” the tape when you first insert it? I always have my tapes fully rewound when I insert them so it’s probably not able to read anything.
The lagging has now gotten more severe and is happening more frequently. The machine is also now making uncomfortable grinding noises when inserting tapes and sometimes when fast forwarding or rewinding. I tried playing a tape today and it took a few presses of the play button before it started playing. If possible I could try posting a video clip here.
I kind of want to take the cover off and take a look inside but I don’t want to break the dr dcc sticker incase it voids some kind of warranty.