I've seen plenty of complaints (here and elsewhere) about TK50
cartridges being very difficult to read these days.
I'm trying to read TK85-K (DLT III) cartridges and I'm experiencing
problems. I've had tapes ripped (although I've found that data
elsewhere). So now I'm being particularly careful. If the drive asks for
a cleaning tape, I run through a cleaning cycle until it is happy and
then I try to load the tape again. However, by the time I've mounted the
tape, the drive "Cleaning Required" light is on again. This happens
repeatedly, I run a cleaning pass or two and then I get a green light. I
might even get as far as loading the tape without and issue, but by the
time the tape is mounted, the "Cleaning Required" light is on.
So is this likely to be sticky shed? Is the DLT III formulation known to
have the same issues? Does baking help? (Not that I'm set up to do that,
but I'm in no rush ...)
I suppose that it is possible that my cleaning tape is worn out and now
past its sell by date. Has anyone cleaned a TZ87 or TZ88 head
successfully? It doesn't seem to be terribly accessible, and I'm not
sure what I can dismantle without wrecking the alignment.
Anyone got any useful suggestions?
Antonio
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Antonio Carlini
[email protected]
