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My dragon won't load tapes

Posted: Tue Sep 06, 2016 9:49 am
by kerbingamer376
Hi,
I'm trying to load tapes into my dragon 32, but every time I try I get it seeming to detect a file (showing "F FROGGER") but then, after a second, giving me a ?IO ERROR.
I've tried all different volume levers on my tape player with no effect. The dragon can load tapes as wavs from my PC fine.

Re: My dragon won't load tapes

Posted: Wed Sep 07, 2016 1:46 pm
by admin
This will either be your tape player or the tape itself. Nothing wrong with the Dragon if it can load from a WAV via a PC. The tapes do degrade over time, hence the effort to preserve there content.

Usually I set the volume to 75% of its maximum and ensure the tape head and capstan have been cleaned and the head re-aligned - this is nothing new and was an issue back in the 80's - its just the tapes are a little older and usually have more "noise" on them now.

Stick with the WAV files - look out for an Android loader app from one of the forum members.

Re: My dragon won't load tapes

Posted: Wed Sep 07, 2016 2:05 pm
by robcfg
As said, I'd try to connect your Dragon tape cable to the output of your sound card on your pc and try to load one of the WAV files we have on the archive.

If that works, your tape is faulty. Otherwise, your Dragon may need repair.

Please try and tell us the results.

Re: My dragon won't load tapes

Posted: Wed Sep 07, 2016 11:39 pm
by Alastair
robcfg wrote:If that works, your tape is faulty.
It may not necessarily be a faulty tape, as Simon said it could be a problem with the tape player. The best way to isolate the problem is to try, if possible, several tapes and tape players. Even an old Walkman could be used in this test (though you will lose the remote control and record ability so a Walkman is not a long term solution).