Well, never posted in any of these forums, but I read through a lot of this stuff before buying my Tascam 244 and figured this would be as good a place as any to share my experience! I was (and still am) a total novice at tape-related stuff, but my very first recording experience when I was a kid was on a Portastudio and recently I have found myself bored and uninspired recording music on my computer.
In my case, the e-bay seller said the belts were bad (ie: completely rotted away) and needed to be replaced. If you're like me and buying a unit off e-bay, this most likely means all the other rubber needs to be replaced as well--idler tires, pinch roller etc. Some people will tell you this is an easy fix, but when I looked at the process just to be able to access the roller and the tires, I had the feeling it was above my pay-grade. Unless you have some experience repairing electronics, you might feel the same way.
Another thing to point out is that you cannot really test the actual function of the cassette deck until all of the rubber is replaced, and you will never really know what you're getting in to. For that matter, the seller probably doesn't know the true quality of the machine they're selling either. In my case, it turned out the DBX board also needed to be replaced, and this was a problem that wasn't discovered until playing back a test tape. Sure, you can test the mixer section, and you should, but that's not why you're buying this thing. Who needs a 40 pound 4-track tabletop mixer these days! (Did I mention this thing is bigger than I expected!)
Anyway, as you might be able to tell, I bought a Tascam and opened up a small can of worms, BUT, I am lucky to live in NYC, not too far from New Jersey and a guy named Russ who owns this place called Tascam Factory Service. Russ is the man, and Russ saved my ass. I sent him the Tascam, he cleaned up all the rubber, diagnosed the DBX problem, and restored the unit back to factory specs for a price that, to me, seems very fair. He also had all the necessary parts, which is no easy feat.
I now have the unit and am impressed (and surprised) at how awesome it sounds. It definitely has it's own character and it's not perfect--that's what I like about it. It groans and complains a little bit from time to time, but it's also fun to work with. Tactile knobs and switches, real faders and meters. Making music is about the experience, dammit! I'm excited to go sit in front of this thing.
And yes, it will interface with your DAW. Just buy RCA to 1/4 inch adapters.
That's all, I hope this is useful to someone.