Tape is stuck in the machine, and I really need the tape!

The tape is stuck in due to a bad mechanical reason. A technician wlll get the tape out and fix the machine. You have no hope other than that.

The solution to the problem comes from recognizing the type of transport the unit uses. This can be discovered by looking at the working side or by a person who has some experience working on these. Chances are there is a stuck flywheel assist mechanism and just because the belts are no broken or not turned to goo, that does not mean they are good. Also does the capstan motor turn? If it does not, there is no way the mechanism can right itself and that might mean a new capstan motor. Dual cassette decks were built for profit not for a long lasting unit- that is why the thrift shops should be full of them and why most of them will not work.

The take-up reel should remove the slack from the tape. Try looking around that area for anything wrong. If it wasn't a new machine I would suggest a lot of things, but the only thing I can think of is either something got damaged in transit or a foreign object is in somewhere.

I don't know anything about the "eats tapes". You can take out your tape fairly easily thought. All you need to do is
unscrew screws on the left and right side of unit
remove the cover
use a flat head screw driver to gently push down on a white lever on the side of the drive mechanism while pushing the eject button

Both these error codes indicate a problem with the supply reel motor.
The first code (02-058) indicates that the reel motor is drawing too much current, which could be caused by a bad motor, defective driver circuit, or even a bad tape. The second code (02-803) indicates tape slack, caused by the defective supply reel motor. FIRST thing to check would be a possible bad tape. Try different tapes and see if the problem persists. If it does, it may be time to find a technician.

The tape won't come out when resetting the drive. Error 6 is serious.
To get out the tape you must open the drive. But IBM has a discription online (and in the user manual) how you can do this.

place the supply side of the corr. tape on the black unit on the left side of the printhead. if there is a orange thing already on it, pull it off. it is the remains of the old tape. put the tape in the black guide next to the cardholder giving it a 1/2 turn clockwise so that the DULL side of the tape is facing towards the paper. then the tape goes between the 2 metal "fingers" and the card holder and into the black guide at the right, then put the other part of the corr. tape spool on the post on the right side of the machine and turn it until the slack is taken up and the working part of the tape is in the center of the cardholder

Excess tape slack and the drives are not able to correct due to age/ lack of service. See if you can get the cover off and verify that the machine is at least trying to shuttle the tape. If that's the case, the idlers need to be replaced...accordianman

Perhaps this will help some.

I realized that this problem occurs on my Canon Optura 30 (consumer mini DV) when the tape is fully rewound. Tapes that are not rewound seem to work fine. If this situation appears to apply to you, try the following, and make sure that in the future you don't fully rewind your tapes!

Fast forward your tape in a tape deck or rewinder. It should play in the camcorder now. If you don't have a machine to do it for you, you can manually advance the tape with a pointy object and a pencil (the eraser--or your pinky!). On the back of the tape, locate the notch between the two spools (the "wheels") near the top, that is, opposite the side where the tape is exposed. The notch will have a spring-loaded slider inside which you can hold open to free the spools. Otherwise they are locked in place and you can't turn them. Holding the slider open with your pointy object, insert the eraser in the right-hand spool (i.e., when the exposed tape is pointing down and the "spine" of the tape is pointing up). Turn the spool slowly counterclockwise, making a few complete turns, to gather up a short length of tape, enough so you have a few seconds' worth of timecode. Be careful not to leave any slack. You can turn the other spool a little bit (clockwise) to catch any slack; lift the cover on the exposed tape (by holding back the little release) to make sure it is tight. If you're not sure which spool to turn, it's the one that does *not* have a window on the front side of the tape. (If the tape is fully rewound, the spool in the window should look full.)

Hope that helps, and good luck. In the future, I'll heed the common advice to use the camcorder playback as little as possible, relying on a tape deck for RW/FFand making sure to transfer material to scratch disks ASAP and then just storing that footage away in a shoebox!!!

It may need to be cleaned. Mechanical problems are one of the big problems with VCRs they use alot of mechanical moving parts and play for so long they fail. Plastic parts dont help much either. The pinch roller takes up the slack and is usualy the part that fails first because it constantly runs along the tape and builds a coating on the rubber so it doesnt grip the tape and pull it back into the cassette. If its not pulling the tape back in then it hangs up inside and you cant get the tape out. Fastforward uses the reels to pull the tape not so much the roller. Try and stop 2 times then fast forward then eject the tape. Try and eject the tape while its fastforwarding so it doesnt do anything else. Sometimes machines will unload after its been in fastforwad a while then it will eject. You will hear a change in the sound when it unloads, you can hear the mechanical arms move the tape in and out of the cassette. Thats when you eject it. You cant really clean it till you get the tape out. YOu can clean the pinch roller with fingernail polish or paint remover. It is a wheel inside it looks like a black tire. It pinches the tape against the capstan arm this is why it developes a film or a shine on the rubber making it slip.