An update, for the curious... ;-)
A blinking red light means that something is very
wrong with the
tape drive. There are several possibilities, including electronic
failure and power supply failure, but the most likely case is that
the take-up leader has come unhooked. You'll have to remove the
drive from the enclosure and look inside the drive to figure out
where to go from here.
Some questions whose answers will determine what you'll have to do
to fix this:
1. Is there much tape wound around the
take-up reel? (You can remove the metal cover over the takeup reel
by taking off three screws.)
2. If the answer to "1" is "No", trace out the plastic leader
from the take-up hub and figure out where it's going (or not
going!) Replacement leaders are only a buck from DECDirect.
3. If the answer to "1" is "Yes", apply power to the drive and see
if
any tape motion takes place. If you're lucky, it'll rewind the tape
back into the cartridge. If you're not lucky, you'll have manually
wind the tape back in (or just pull it out and trash the tape.)
There is plenty of tape around the reel in the drive, so I tried to apply
power to see if it would rewind. The drive would wind for perhaps a second
three times, then stop completely and flash the red light. Looks to me as if
the motor isn't spinning properly...suggestions?