Data Protector Express not responding

[Janeane Coutu]

I have setup a backup job that ran successfully a few times but recently shows it starts at the correct time, status shows running but no files are being backed up nor are there any alerts. I can't cancel the job, if I click on STOP, nothing happens and the application stops responding. Then I can't login to the software anymore.
I tried stopping the service but get an error that it can't stop. The only solution at this stage seems to be restarting the server which is not acceptable on a daily basis.
There are no alerts for the most recent job and there was definitely a tape inserted.
any suggestions?