Just a word of caution: On my Sony TRV17 I was also getting this C:31 or C:32:something error message (not always the same last two digits, but usually 22, 23 or 16). I read about the smack-it theorem on a couple forum sites and decided this must be the solution. I smacked the camcorder tape-side first lightly, then progressively harder (as suggested if to no avail) until I hit it with approximately equal to the force of dropping it on the carpet from 2 feet or so – stern force, but nothing extreme. Well, two pieces came out from the tape compartment when I ejected the tape next: First, a chrome-colored metal bushing with a black rubber outer coating (about 5/16 inch long and 3/16 inch wide. Second a white plastic tubular spacer, about as thick as a pencil lead and 1/8 inch long. I removed some screws on the flip-side of the tap housing to gain access to the inner tape mechanism and found a little prong that the bushing fit on nicely and the spacer fit on it snuggly, so I installed the bushing and pushed the spacer on over that to hold it in place (I don’t know if I put it together correctly, but now it does work. So – if you have this C:31 or C32 error, check out the prong inside the tape compartment that I describe next (you can see this without any disassembly). There are seven items protruding from the center of the tape widget, if you count from the lens side of the camera, it will be the second prong, kind-of situated up and between the two others – the first prong will be metal, the second (the important one) should have a black rubber bushing and the third a white bushing or spacer. Also, the prong, if pressed with a pencil or something, should glide back and forth (this prong pulls the tape down around the heads). If your Sony doesn’t have this black bushing, or if it is loose or not lined up with the other prongs correctly, this may be your problem. Also, if you do anything inside the compartment, be sure to run a cleaning tape to clean the heads from any debris or oil you may have introduced into the compartment.

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