Seagate STT3401A Tape Drive

Anyone have any experience with these back up drives? LINK
I've got one in a 4 year old Dell server at work and Monday AM switched tapes for the Monday evening back up.
As a copier was noisily warming up in the background, I didn't notice anything unusual except the tape was kicked back out after a minute or so.
This is not unusual, as occasionally I have to put it in a second time to be recognized. So pushed it back in and started hearing some light grinding noise.
Tried an "Eject Tape" command in the backup program which had no effect. At the same time the lovely smell of electrics started wafting up. Finally the tape was ejected as the drive seemed to be slowing down to no motion on the tape.
Tape itself and cassette seemed undamaged. Left it alone as it's the only server in the office and programs ran with no problems.
Tried putting in another tape Tuesday AM and it was immediately kicked back out with a slight electric smell.
I'll be pulling it this weekend to look at it physically.

I'm figuring it's toast but does anyone have a different take on the subject?
TIA