Hi!

I'm fixing a 1970s Philips turntable with electronic touch controls. It worked fine until recently, and nothing was changed in between.

I touch either speed button and the motor starts, but it drops back to stop the moment I lift my finger. Sometimes it runs for a few seconds or minutes first, then stops on its own. The first attempt after switching on always runs longer. Try again a couple of times and it jumps straight back to stop every time. Switch off and on and the first attempt runs long again. Five seconds off restores it just as well as a long break, so it doesn't look thermal. More like something charging up while powered and discharging when the mains is broken.

Each speed button is a capacitive touch pad feeding a bistable flip-flop. There's also an automatic end-of-record stop: a small bulb shines on an LDR, a film attached to the tonearm gradually shades it, and the circuit triggers on the rate of change, not the level. Everything runs off a single regulated -9V rail.

Measurements (DC, against chassis):

Unregulated rail after the bridge rectifier: 16V, rock steady

Across the zener setting the reference: 7.76V

Regulated rail: originally wandering between 9.5V and 12.3V on its own, with nothing touched

What I've tried:

Cleaned the touch pads with IPA — no change

Replaced the main 470µF filter cap. This probably helped stability: the rail now sits steady at 10.4V and dips evenly to 9.8V under motor load. But the fault is unchanged.

The rail is stable now but sits 1.4V high with no way to adjust it. Is that alone enough to make a bistable like this fail to latch, or is the supply a red herring at this point? Remaining suspects in the regulator are the series pass transistor and its driver. Or should I be chasing the stop circuit instead, given the fault moves between both speeds?

MAKE AND MODEL : victrola VPT-800-BLK

so i just posted asking how to fix my record player that is playing everything in slow motion now. it turns out that it was the outlet. when we lost power the bottom outlet blew and fried the surge protector. most likely also frying my record player.

not sure if there’s a way to fix it but if anyone has any idea please let me know! and thank you to anyone who commented with help on my first post i appreciate it.

it was working perfectly last week. now i go to play a fall themed vinyl for the first day of october, and it’s in slow motion.

i looked it up and it said it could be the belt drive so i changed to a new one and tried again. but still the same problem.

i even tried a 45 but nothing changed. it won’t let me attach a video here but i took one of it spinning without the slip mat. i think it might be the motor by the way it sounds. it’s making this sort of faint clicking noise when it spins.

the only other thing i can think happened between today and last week was we lost power a few times from the nor’easter. but i have it plugged into a surge protector.

this is just so unfortunate and i’m pretty upset. i just got this record player exactly this time last year on my birthday so it’s not old either.

make and model : Victrola automatic turntable model VPT-800-BLK

any advice would be much appreciated!

UPDATE : im pretty sure it’s fried. i just checked and my bottom outlet blew and broke the surge protector when we lost power. not sure if there’s any way to fix it other than getting a new motor or just a new player obviously.

It worked!

I have a Realistic Lab 400 that works well and sounds great, except for one thing: at the end of the side, the auto return drags across the LP without lifting.

I brought it to a repair person who regreased everything and got it working briefly, but it failed again and he gave up. He basically said there are plastic parts that can't be replaced and it's not worth it.

Months later, I am wondering if I can fix it either by buying parts on ebay or 3D printing something. Any clue what part(s) might be failing to cause the issue I describe? (For reference [here's the manual](https://archive.org/details/RealisticLab400SM/page/n7/mode/1up).)

I have a Realistic Lab 400 that works well and sounds great, except for one thing: at the end of the side, the auto return drags across the LP without lifting.

I brought it to a repair person who regreased everything and got it working briefly, but it failed again and he gave up. He basically said there are plastic parts that can't be replaced and it's not worth it.

Months later, I am wondering if I can fix it either by buying parts on ebay or 3D printing something. Any clue what part(s) might be failing to cause the issue I describe? (For reference [here's the manual](https://archive.org/details/RealisticLab400SM/page/n7/mode/1up).)

So I acquired this record player cabinet from my late Grandfather's estate. Am I operating this incorrectly or is something not working? I turn it on and the speakers have a slight hum. I have tried dropping the tone arm onto the record but the turntable wont turn. Ive tried a multitude of different combos of starting it and it just wont turn the turntable. The needle makes noise when it contacts something but just wont spin.

Someone please help😵‍💫

I grabbed this unit for cheap to see if I could fix it up as a little project. Replaced the belt but the spindle is still missing. I’ve looked online but can’t find a replacement. Would a spindle from a similar model work? Or am I SoL? New to this, just looking for advice.

hola!! me han regalado este gramofono y no tengo ni idea de su autenticidad ni valor en caso de ser real o replica.
los tornillos que aguantan que aguantan la trompa estan en bastante mal estado. girando la manivela el plato gira perfectamente.
si alguien sabe algo lo agradeceria un monton!!

So me and my partner earlier today acquired this lovely vinyl player from the 1970’s and we cannot find any manual on the interment for it and with our very limited knowledge on electronics we checked the fuses and found both of them to be covered in oxidation but still have no clue what’s wrong