The first thing that you need to do is to check the tape drive wheel and see if it's gummy! If you put a tape in with a gummy wheel you'll ruin it because the gummy material will stick to the tape and then it will be wound up between layers of the tape. Then the next time that you use the tape the gummy material will rip the magnetic media off the tape! Usually they're so far gone that the "rubber" is melting and running. If it's not obviously bad then use your finger or the eraser end of a pencil and press it to see if it's soft. You should not be able to leave a permanent dent in it. If it's soft or runny then don't put a tape in it unless you're willing to ruin it. BTW the old 40Mb tapes for the early tape drives (like the Irwin drives) for PCs will work in those drives. You can find those around the trift stores, surplus stores and hamfests. You can format them on the HP-85 using the INITIALIZE command. Oh! And DEC CompacTapes will work in it too. Joe At 02:20 PM 11/8/05 -0700, you wrote: