Greetings again,

I did some additional inspection on the TU80. If I just load a tape
(yes, I do ensure that spinning the takeup reel spins the supply
reel), latch the spindle and push "Load" button, it spins the supply
reel too fast and causes tape to jump out of its track. A friction
problem between the tape and the spindle, maybe? After this it gives
me error code 12. According to the sticker inside the hatch, this
means "Spindle not latched". I suppose the spindle is latched if I
push down the outer part of it, and it's unlatched if I push down the
middle part, causing the outer part to pop up. After a couple of load
failures I decided to perform a "test load" as suggested in the
sticker. This failed with error code 14 and it took me about ten
minutes to clean up the mess. The blower is constantly blowing, is
this normal? Are the error codes for diagnostics utility the same as
they are for normal operation? I'm running out of tapes if this keeps
happening :-) The tape drive worked a couple of years ago, so I
suppose I'm doing something wrong here - this wouldn't be the first
time. ;-)

-- 
 Erno Palonheimo - Helsinki University of Technology - + 358 50 560 4765