Hi I'm new here. I am delighted that I found this site. I have been a huge fan of personal stereos since I was a small boy but I had all but given up on them, until now!

I still have my Aiwa HS-J700A walkman, which I bought on April 6, 1988. I am missing the rechargeable 'gumstick' battery and snap on battery holder, the omnidirectional 'cube' stereo microphone, and the carrying case, but I do have the AAA battery holder, the owner's manual and the original registration card.

This is the one which was featured in 'The Sharper Image' catalog in early '88. It has the Red LED lights for the radio tuner with 3 preset buttons, a four band equalizer on the front, auto reverse and reverse record capability, and record-from-the-radio capability (which was the biggest reason I bought it - so I could record the weekly Top 40 countdown while on my way to school).

I had the unit repaired by Aiwa's Service Center in Moonachie, New Jersey back in 1991. The problem was the auto reverse mechanism would get stuck and would not reverse. Strangely, the problem only occurred when you tried to manually reverse it, but if you let the tape play until the end of the side, it would work fine.

This problem re-appeared in about 1995, along with a few other problems, notably, when the radio was on, the unit would intermittently go off and on and the station would be reset to the first preset. It would get worse when the unit was moved quickly or shaken, also, moving the 4th slider lever on the equalizer would cause the sound to move more to the right headphone than the left.

I had a technician in New York City look at it around 2001, but he was unwilling to begin work on it, he felt he would wind up having to charge me way too much once he started.

SO: can anyone help me? Does anyone here know anyone knowledgable enough to fix this for me for a reasonable cost? I would do it myself, but I am not really a talented technician. I could follow instructions, but if it required precision soldering and other advanced skills, I would not venture into it.

Thanks so much for any help you can offer!