It was a relief to be able to eject this particular tape, before I had to rip the D30 apart. It's still powered, but no more functionality have been revealed. In the meantime, I borrowed a fully functional Tascam DA-P1 portable to get the job done. Tested the machine with a non-important tape, and it worked as it should. So (trans-)mission is complete, and my D30 will be placed in a storage room....unfortunately. I've always been sceptical to this fragile format. A total of 7 (semi-pro and PRO range) machines have been in the studios ownership so far. NONE of them have been without hickups or problems. It's time to tranfer the whole bunch of tapes to HD....once and for all
Thanks for all help.