tape deck broken?
 

so i open up my tape deck... it beeps, comes up but the tape slide mechanism doesnt open... it just slides back down again like i put in an invisible tape. is it broken?

I had something similar once, with the camera on a tripod. I took it off the tripod, removed the base-plate and set it on a flat surface. Happily, it worked. My guess at an explanation is that the tripod base-plate was done up a bit too tight and caused the body to flex just a bit too much in a critical place, but I really don't know. I stopped thinking about it when the problem went away, and it hasn't recurred.

Did you make absolutely sure you fully opened the compartment door... like the hand strap is preventing it?

i did something stupid and opened up my camera and put it back together and now its fine. :)

How many screws did you have left over???? :)

Three! haha