Adat Error

[geddydawg]

Hello all,
I have an older, black Adat that Im currently having problems with. It has been working flawlessly fine for years and years now, but today when I went to use it, comes up with ERR 5. Now, I read the manual and looked online for what may be causing that to happen. Its not the digital in being on when it shouldnt be, etc....
What's happening is, when I put a tape in, I hear a pulsating noise happen (that never used to be there, and is not present in the other Adat I have) from what Im assuming is the motor or record/playback head.
With a tape in, and the head is disengaged, I can fast forward and rewind, and it will show the exact time code no problem.
As soon as I engage the head, the machine shows a "no fo" (No format) error...
If I re-disengage the head, the spot I stopped at is the new "00:00" . Then, if I fast forward or rewind the tape more.. the machine time always starts 00:00 and goes forward (or backward) depending if I hit FF or REW. When the head is engaged again, no matter where on the tape I stop, it shows the "no fo" sing again. Ive tried this with a tape Ive used for ages, and a brand new tape that I formatted today in a different Adat.
Because of this error, not only will it not play as a standalone unit, but also will not sync up to another Adat... But mostly, I can't play anything on that machine... Frustrating!
Does anyone happen to have any ideas? Is it repairable at all? Is there anyone out there that can repair this?

[retronoodle]

It could be dirty heads, or something that needs to be oiled. Nofo sometimes means that it needs cleaning, because it cant read the tape well enough to see the time code.