I bought the machine second hand about three or four months ago. The seller said it had just been cleaned and serviced. While he was a stranger, I had no reason to disbelief him. I used it several times right after I bought it and it worked perfectly. It had no errors and I saw no reason to service it yet. Then I left it sit unused in the spare room of my smoke free home for about three months. I pulled it out just the other day and fired it up. Again no errors were displayed. After a few minutes of running just fine, it munched a tape. I opened it up and cleaned it as per written directions. (Near pure alcohol, lint free cloth, turning the head counter-clockwise...) I also cleaned up all the pegs and levers in the tape path with alcohol and Q-tips. I didn't soak the rubber capstan with alcohol but I did rub it lightly with the leftover not-very-damp cloth.
I put in the same crippled tape, but fast-forwarded it for several minutes to a fresh spot, and tried it again. It ran good for a minute or so but then it put the smack down on the tape again.
Well, I pulled the tape, pulled the plug, and put the contemptible thing back in the spare room. Now I am not speaking to it at all. I’ll just let it sit and think for a while about what it has done.
