My video recorder seems to have become extremely sick since I rented the latest Harry Potter video. It makes a humming noise when it runs, it has black lines appearing across the picture, the frame seems to lose its vertical hold every so often and also there seems to be interference. The sound also becomes distorted occasionally.

Liz Kwantes, October 2003

just hit it with the hammer and go and buy another 1.

fred, July 2004

Liz, does it not just need a good clean? You can buy cleaning tapes. Try these. If not, you may need to pay for it to be cleaned. (Someone will take the lid off and clean it with cleaning fluid.)

Rented tapes tend to be quite worn. As they play they shed dust from the tape on to the machine's parts. This dust can be compacted by the rollers to make the workings run in a lumpy way. I suspect this is what you are hearing.

Sarah Lincoln, October 2003