hey brian where did you send the deck ??and was it a loading problem??
I sent my deck to the Sony Service center in CA. Wish now I'd sent it to ProDigital - heard nothing but good things about them.
My deck started unloading tapes randomly - during play, ff, rw, rec. Then it chewed a tape. Then it stopped loading tapes at all. Still don't know how they fixed it, as I haven't gotten it back yet.
I'd give PD a call and tell them your symptoms - they may be able to fix it cheaper and faster than Sony.