EVERYONE!!!!!! A FIX FOR JVC I THINK! Do me a favor and try this fix. Everyone talks about preasure points, smacking the camera, etc.. Also people gettign the drum replaced. Try this fix. Its almot magical!. Open the door to the camera, eject the tape, and the metal bar on the BOTTOM of where you slide the tape in, just slightly bend it in. Just enough so that as you put the tape in and watch it go down. The bar will actually push against the bottom of the drum a bit and get pushed back out as the tape descends. Try to play a tape that used to have problems, it works, and I Can record again! Id didnt believe it at first, so I straightend out the bar again, and again, got E04, and nothing playing back. Once I bent it in slightly again, it started working again!!!! Try it and write me back! Dave

I saw this, did it and it worked. Good Luck I have a GR-DVM90, this past september, I got the good old E 01 error message which I have become quite familiar. This time, however, it would not clear or go away. I have been dreading sending the thing to the nearest JVC Service Center, in Philly, because they want $75 just to look at the thing. I put it off till now, since I need to use it soon. I did a search on the internet and came u with these message boards. One of the messages said to tap the camera on the side where the tape goes in. They said it worked. I thought it was BS. Then I did it. I tapped, and the thing came to life. I about fell on the floor. Go figure. I hear tell it starts with using the cheaper DV tapes, like TDK. I don't know for sure about that, but I think I'll go out and buy some good old fashioned expensive JVC tapes. I figure I've got about three hundred bucks till I run out what I would have spent sending it to the service center...... -- Jeffrey S. Wettig (drdkdover@supernet.com), February 14, 2003.

I saw this, did it and it worked. Good Luck I have a GR-DVM90, which I bought in a drunken haze on bourbon Street in New Orleans last year during Mardi Gras, needless to say I spent way too much for it and I'm not really sure if it's "Hot" or on the level. At any rate, this past september, I got the good old E 01 error message which I have become quite familiar. This time, however, it would not clear or go away. I have been dreading sending the thing to the nearest JVC Service Center, in Philly, because they want $75 just to look at the damn thing. I put it off till now, since I need to use it soon. I did a search on the internet and came u with these message boards. One of the messages said to tap the camera on teh side where the tape goes in. They said it worked. I thought it was BS. Then I did it. I tapped, and the damn thing came to life. I about fell on the floor. Go figure. I hear tell it starts with using the cheaper DV tapes, like TDK. I don't know for sure about that, but I think I'll go out and buy some good old fashioned expensive JVC tapes. I figure I've got about three hundred bucks till I run out what I would have spent sending it to the service center...... -- Jeffrey S. Wettig (drdkdover@supernet.com), February 14, 2003.

My Daughter starts school tomorrow and my wife passed me the camera about 15 minutes ago and asked me to work out why it did'nt work. Mmmm...safe guard mode mode on...."better look this up" I said. Google...checked the advice here...smacked the crap out of the camera (Model GR-DVL510EA) and voila!!! works again...THANK YOU ALL. I can't believe what a bucket of excrement this camera has been. Nothing but charger and battery troubles since day one.... Thanks for helping us record the 1st day of school though. Cheers, Sean.

I work for a public affairs/media relations office and part of my job is documenting things my organization does. We purchased 5 of these cameras and every one of them now has the damn E04 message. I've read this forum front to back and was able to fix one of them. I opened the cassette compartment, left it empty, took off the battery, opened the view screen, beat the holy hell out of the camera, re-inserted the battery and by some miracle of God himself the thing works. I'm going to try it with the others now. I'll let you know what happens. I refuse to believe that beating the thing is the techical solutions, but hey, if it works it works. My hats off to the disgruntled consumer who figured this one out.

Can you tell me if you ever got a response to this, which resolved the problem? I'm currently experiencing the same problem Thanks Phil

I JUST BOUGHT JVC DV CAMERA GR-D53 AND WHEN I SET FOR USE ' PLEASE WAIT , condensation, operation paused ' WARNING CAME UP. MANUEL SAYS IT WILL GO AFTER 1 HOUR , I LEFT OPEN FM NIGHT TO MORNING , IT STILL SAYS SAME THING, LIKE A JOKE , I CAN NOT USE IT!! I DONT SUGGEST ANYONE TO BUY THIS DEVICE...

Hi all! I just fixed a JVC with the E4 errorcode. The DRUM head was blocked. After ejecting and forcing the head to move with a wooden tool, it came loose and the code is gone. Good luck! John

I have the safegaurd mode error as well. The tricks mentioned earlier to fix the problem helped the first few times but then the problem became more and more frequent and less responsive to the "solutions". JVC is going to lose a lot of customers if this keeps up. The problem is not limited to just a couple models. I have seen all kinds of models listed on this site and others.

I also received the "E04 Remove and reattach battery. Unit in safeguard mode". After reading through the various postings on this site, I decided to carefully yet thoroughly clean the drum. I used the higher concentration (antimicrobial) isopropyl alchohol 91% which I purchased at the local CVS pharmacy. I shuttled the drum between two Q-tips that had been dipped in the alcohol. I then repeated the process with two additional dry Q-tips. Lastly, I very gently touched the dry Q-tip against the spinning drum. (The drum spins when you close or open the mechanism as though you were inserting or removing a tape.) Success! The camera seems to be working normally, at least for the past 4 minutes. I will now try to find whether there is any validity to the statement in other postings that the JVC tapes are different than the others. If there is some difference in the substrate, then I will pay the extra price for the JVC tapes in the future. I am a bit paranoid about damaging the camera, so I was very careful not to drip alchohol into the electronics. I was also very careful not to slow down the spinning drum with the Q-tip. Proceed at your own risk.