strange m90 tape deck occurrences

i got my m90 today and its full of hiccups... i have gotten thru a lot of them with contact/control cleaner and messing around...

however my tape deck is acting crazy

it took a while for me to get it open to insert a tape but now it ejects fine most of the time
sometimes when a tape is loaded it seems to clamp on it and hold it hostage and not open all the way
after unplugging the machine and plugging it back it it sometimes gives me the tape back
the tape controls are completely unresponsive
there are no lights in the multi music scanner
when i plug in the power cord i can sometimes see the rec and pause light illuminate for a split second
strangely it has now taken my tape and is playing it... except i didnt hit play....
the volume is extremely low and it is playing a low speed..
it wont let me fast foward or rewind or stop the tape with the controls...
i hit eject and it gave me my tape
however i cannot duplicate its strange ghost playback i experienced when i started this post :ghost:

very strange

whatever you do ,do not cut the power off while the tape deck is running it causes all kinds of problems with the tape mech ,you must press stop on the deck before turning off the power i learned the hard way on my very first m90 ,the pc 55 is the same way these full logic decks must be fully stopped before you turn off the power.

LOL This sounds exactly like my deck reptoid!
Exactly! I still have a few other boxes to mess around with before I get to the m90.
I hope you get some helpful replies, i'll be reading up on all the past threads regarding this.
hope you can get it sorted out.
Paul Z.

try replacing the belt it might be slipping causing some iractic behavior

with Ramonchichi. If that doesn't do it, then it might be time to send it off to someone who can fix it for you. If you decide to do it yourself, it's not especially hard but a few of those screws that secure the mechanism are really hard to put back in. Please persist and re-secure it properly no matter how frustrating. The next owner will love you for it. I hate nothing more when I go to work on a boombox, than to discover missing screws.

One last thing lizard man... when a deck is playing, that means that the heads are in the up position. Resist the temptation to press the eject button. You could damage the heads if they are up when you try to extract a tape.

My M90 did the same 'ghost' play operation that reptoids did while the power button is ON and you plug the radio in. Done it a few times, can't stop the reels unless you turn the power off. New belts, cleaned, and all 4 fusible resistors are in tact as well as all the original screws.... My MMS does light up and scroll through the numbers. Deck makes the usual 'clunk' noise when I power off the unit, but no buttons are working for the deck. Capstan spins for the deck standby when powered on also.