Squeaky tapes

[bjt]

Most of my tapes are loading fine now, the full price games seem to work best (better quality tapes?)


However some of the covertapes and budget games make a mechanical squeaking nose when played, I'm not clear if this is coming from a head-tape interaction or something to do with the spools. These also have problems loading - "read error b".


Any ideas what's causing this, are they shot? I'll just chuck them if so, no sense ruining my tape deck.
I have heard similar noises from old floppy discs that are starting to shed their magnetic coating.

[Bryce]

It's usually the plastic reels against the cassette housing that makes the noise. If the cassette is screwed closed you can open it and grease the surface.

Bryce.

[chinnyhill10]

Most of my tapes are loading fine now, the full price games seem to work best (better quality tapes?)


However some of the covertapes and budget games make a mechanical squeaking nose when played, I'm not clear if this is coming from a head-tape interaction or something to do with the spools. These also have problems loading - "read error b".


Any ideas what's causing this, are they shot? I'll just chuck them if so, no sense ruining my tape deck.
I have heard similar noises from old floppy discs that are starting to shed their magnetic coating.

Any sign of oxide build up on the heads?

[ivarf]

A VHS-tape did that to me and killed the motor of the player when fast rewinding.

[bjt]

I guess the extra drag on the spools made the motor overheat.
Will try greasing some spools and see if that fixes it.

[bjt]

Well it seems that just fully fast forwarding and rewinding the affected tapes a few times sorts them out. I guess they're just a little stiff after 25 years sitting.

[dlfrsilver]

a solution : cut a piece of nose-sipping-paper  lol or some eye cleaner that women use.

cut it in proportion in order to insert it on the top of the foam buffer in your tape.

Then do fast forward, go to the end of the tape, and do a fast rewind.

Once done, remove the tape, and remove the eye cleaner piece / or paper-nose-sipper and check it.

There must be some particules on it. If correctly removed, the tape should not be doing anymore noise.