From: "Gary Davis" <gdavis@loop.com>
Subject: Re: Tuneup Risks/D8 Wear / Head Alignment
Date: Thu, 28 Aug 1997 14:09:41 +0000

Some people are wondering, if they get their decks serviced, will 
they still play the tapes they were making just before service.

I believe this is based on how far you let you deck go before you 
service it.  Let me explain...

We've all heard horror stories about people who used their D7's till 
they were completely dead, then had them repaired, and when they got 
them back (usually 3 or 4 repairs later, or replaced with new D8's), 
they wouldn't play the tapes they were making as they were dying 
(more on identifying this later).

I became very worried, since I had taped virtually all my original 
tapes in LP, once I discovered that my Fostex D5 couldn't play many 
of my LP tapes.  Once my original D8 "died," would I ever be able to 
play these tapes again?

Fortunately, I discovered that all Sony decks, even home decks and 
"pro" decks like the R500, could play my D8-LP tapes flawlessly.  
This INCLUDES the ones I made even one day before the D8 "died."

The first symptom that your D8 is wearing out, is when it says 
"blank" when you try to fast-forward a tape.  I kept using mine after 
this point, but I checked the tapes it was making on other decks 
to make sure they were ok.

The second symptom is the deck will "reset" (turn itself off, then 
back on to stop mode) in the middle of a recording or playback.

If your D8 ever does this, you are at risk of damaging the tape!  Be 
very careful what you do next!  You can either eject immediately, or 
hit fast-forward to take up the slack, then eject.  (Which is better? 
Opinions?  It depends on if the deck starts to mangle the tape when 
you hit FF!)

Anyway, if your D8 does a reset, try a different brand of tape.  If 
it does it twice, it's worn out, and you really should stop using it 
immediately.

As I've mentioned, I used my D8 almost exclusively with 90m tapes 
(and Alex P used his D7 almost exclusively with 90m tapes, without 
any problems, except the inevitable wearing out discussed here).

Some people, when their D8 begins to reset or wind badly on 90m 
tapes, will switch to 60m tapes which seem to work fine.  If 
90m's worked fine when you bought the deck, but suddenly stop 
working, this does not mean that "90m's are bad for your deck."  
It really means that the thinner 90m tapes have detected 
your deck is wearing out, and not handling tape correctly, 
faster than a 60m tape would.

If you switch to 60m tapes to get a few more months out of your 
deck, YOU MAY REGRET IT once the deck is repaired!  You have ignored 
the signs that your deck is wearing out and continued to use it till 
it's completely dead.

This is just a theory, if you have evidence to support or refute, 
please let us know.

Is there anyone out there with a D7 used heavilly with 60m tapes 
only?  Did it last any longer?

--Gary

Re "Head Alignment"

Heads on DAT Decks are NOT alignable!  They are shipped pre-cemented 
to the spinning head drum, which is also not really alignable.

The aligment deals with guides, but mostly, "alignment error" occurs 
from incorrect tension (ie, the tape isn't held properly to the 
guides), and incorrect tension is really not something you want to 
duplicate to make a deck which plays certain bad tapes...

--G