On 2014-05-17 20:19, Brian Schenkenberger, VAXman- wrote: Johnny Billquist <bqt at softjar.se> writes: On 2014-05-17 20:14, Cory Smelosky wrote: On Sat, 17 May 2014, Johnny Billquist wrote: I got the one perfectly cleaned...but the motor appears to be failing at times and putting a cartridge in seals its fate. If I start using it beyond the first foot or so I'd be fine...so long as I never want to REMOVE the cartridge. A bit odd. I don't remember ever having that problem. I've had drives that occasionally decided to not give the cartridge back, and I have had to extract them and manually rewind the tape in (boring as hell), but after some mucking around I've normally gotten them working again. But the TK50 is not the best design around, and the operation is confusing. The TK70 is better... And TK50 exists in different firmware revisions, and some are quirkier than others. Agreed with the operation being confusing. ;) I think I'm going to end up just cleaning a DAT drive and shoving RSTS/E install media on that. I have Exabyte, DDS-3 and TK50 on my PDP-11 at home. I never use the TK50. :-) Hopefully, your Exabyte isn't the 8200. ;) I never remember if it is an 8200 or an 8500. Either way, it's been working fine for the last 20 years or so... :-) Johnny -- Johnny Billquist || "I'm on a bus || on a psychedelic trip email: bqt at softjar.se || Reading murder books pdp is alive! || tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol