Now if only there were some magic to keep a
TK50/TK70/TZ30 drive working
for more than ten minutes.
Ten minutes sounds about the right length of time for the first traversal of
the tape, at which time the collected sticky crud from most old tapes is
deposited at the end of the track when it reverses direction, and then
proceeds to stick the tape to the head.
I don't know if the formulation of the tapes is such that you can remove the
stickiness with heat/dehydration. This is also something I need to try on
DC-300 carts that have become sticky.
You also need to THOUROUGHLY clean the head stack. I have a TZ30 that I
leave partially disasembled so I can pull the stack out the top so it can be
cleaned with isopropyl on a cotton swab.
--
It's probably time to put together lists of what TK50s (distr at least..)
have already been read to save others the grief of dealing with old sticky
media.