zenith vcr

Hi, I have a zenith vcr, model #VR4176, which is 5 years old. Today I turned it on to remove a tape, and I had to hit eject 3 times before the tape came out. Just as I was ready to insert a new tape , it made a strange sound, like it had accepted a tape and was pulling it in to play, same sound, but kinda muffled and sick. It then quickly flashed the channel, shut itself down and displayed the word "ALARM" instead of the time.
I have turned the power on several times since and it goes through the exact same steps from the funny sound, shutting down and displaying ALARM.
Any idea's what the problem could be?

 

It is usually indictive of a chip failure, when that happens. In all honesty with the price of VCR's it might be less expensive to find a new one.