speaking of tape, it got this HP1533a scci tape that I used twice, in over
   4 years.  Recently I tried it again and it rewind the tape to the begin
   and then fails and ejects the tape.  When I pull out the tape, there is
   like 1 inch of the tape hanging lose outside the cartridge.

Beware of tape being wound up inside the drive, too.  A couple of
times I've lost cartridges that way, because I had to cut the tape to
get it out.  And its really easy to destroy the drive if you pull out
the cartridge when tape is wound up inside the drive!

Cheers,
Brook