The Legend wrote:

I own a fairly old Pioneer CT-S740S tape deck that has seen very, very
little use. About eight years ago, I treated myself to this after getting
five numbers up on the Lottery. It would have been a Nakamichi, but, 'er
indoors, threatened to leave me if, in her words, "I squandered so much
money on some fancy deck", and that an "Amstrad would do the same job,
just as well".

With hindsight, I should have realised this relationship was doomed and
gone ahead with the purchase of a Nakamichi, as we split up not too long
after.

Anyway, due to house moves and various other reasons, as I stated earlier,
the deck has had very little use and at one stage it was boxed up for
about four years. However, maybe it's the old eyes or maybe I'm just
imagining it, but the fluorescent display seems to be -well - for the want
of a better word...degrading. It seems to have lost its nice sharpness and
brightness, it looks sort of patchy, positively dull and awful.

Is it likely to be the display and if so, would it be economical repair?
Quite honestly, I really like the deck and as I've had so little use out
of it, wouldn't mind spending a reasonable amount of dosh.

Any thoughts and an idea of the cost to repair it, would be appreciated.

TIA

tox

Ha! Amusing post. Women eh??

Anyways, your display is most likely ok and the cause could be a bad
capacitor in the power supply section. This was a common fault on VCR's
especially Panasonic, AKAI and a few others. As to cost ~ pennies if you
can do the job yourself, £40-£60 I would guess at a repair centre, labour
charge being the biggest factor here.

Rich..