Tape drive blows fuse

[gamer-stu]

I bought a nice Vic-20 lot off of eBay recently, including a Vic-20, C2N datasette deck, tapes, and several cartridges. Everything seemed to work well, until I turned my attention to the datasette deck. Pressing rewind blew the Vic fuse (3.15 amp in a two prong Vic). While I'm waiting for new fuses to be delivered, any thoughts as to what the problem might be? I could test on another Vic, but I don't want to blow more fuses, since clearly something is wrong (not sure with the datasette or the Vic). Is it worth investigating, or should I just use one of my many other C2Ns and move on?

Chris

[groepaz]

i'd open it up and test the motor. also make sure nothing is stuck so it cant turn easily.

[gamer-stu]

i'd open it up and test the motor. also make sure nothing is stuck so it cant turn easily.

Good call. Once I get the new fuses, I'll also test a known good C2N to clear the Vic-20's good name.

[gamer-stu]

I replaced the fuse and was able to run a known good C2N on the new Vic. So whatever the problem is, it is being caused by a faulty C2N. I opened up the C2N in question, and everything appears to be in good order, from a cursory glance. Belt is on, connections look good etc. Considering that I'll have to hook it back up and risk blowing more fuses to test a few scenarios, I might just harvest it for parts and call it a (relatively minor) loss. On the plus side, I got another Vic, some carts that I was looking for, and some cassette software that I'd been wanting.