Stripey picture when i turn my friends camcorder on the picture is out of focus and digitally stripey. he says it is an intermittant problem. I have triad "silly girl"s solution from the manual which changes the focus from MF to AF (Auto focus). this seems to have done the trick but am concerned about the intermittancy. any more ideas would be appreciated thanks

I have found, that by laying the cleaning stick agaist the drum or head and rotating the drum and the stick stationary seems to work great too.

If you haven't cleaned the video head yet this should be the next step. Get the proper video head cleaning swabs and cleaning solution (usually 100% alcohol or electrical contact cleaner) and open the video tape cassette compartment door. The video drum is the large rotating drum near the bottom of the cassette compartment. Being very careful, (never go up and down (vertically) on the drum), clean the head paying particular attention to the location where the rotating and non-rotating parts meet (that is where the actual video head assemblies are). Also clean the audio/CTL head, capstan, pinch roller and tape guides while you're in there. Give it a test and see if this has solved the problem. If it did not try the following. If you are handy with tools, have a set of jewelers screwdrivers (they can be purchased also and are fairly cheap), a set of magnifying glasses and lots of patience use the screwdrivers to remove the cases of the camcorder. When you get the cases off look for ribbon cables which are loose or out of their connectors. If you don't find any you probably have a problem which is beyond your repair capabilities and you will need to take it to a reputable repair facility. Good luck.