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I would like to thank all the people who answered, at first. You were great!
Original post:
> DETAILED DESCRIPTION: I have several 8mm tape drives under hardware
> contract and they all are ejecting any data tape few seconds
> after inserting them into the drive, no matter how old these data
> tapes are. I've already cleaned the drives with the "Cleaning
> Cartridge" and tried many tapes from different vendors (all of them
> were brand new ones).
> Are there any adjustments or hardware maintenance procedures
> that can be done in order to fix this problem ??? I'll summarize...
The summary: there are two situations
-> Some of the tape drives are really BAD and must be replaced. ARGHHHH!
-> But there's no need to replace the others. At least, not yet.... In
fact, I was told to see if the tapes were rewound tightly. Then I asked
the customers to rewind them before putting in the defective (supposed)
drive (using a camcoder or another drive...). It has solved the problem!
It's due to an old Exabyte firmware, so the tapes must be completely
rewound before putting them inside the Exabyte 8200. Also, it seems that
the tension on new tapes is sometimes loose, causing the drive to eject
them.
So, if you put a TIGHTLY REWOUND DATA TAPE inside the drive and it is
ejected, then there's just one thing to do: replace this drive.
See the attachment for something found in the Sun HelpDesk.
If you want the whole replies, just ask me.
Thanks again to the following people (in order of arrival):
Wei Wei Shao (shao@amil.co.il)
Thomas J. Orban (orban@advtech.uswest.com)
Stephen Dowdy (dowdy@cs.colorado.edu)
Richard Mills (rmills@ccd.harris.com)
Casper Dik (casper@fwi.uva.nl)
Cheah Choong Beng (cheah@kuala-lumpur.geco-prakla.slb.com)
David Rossman (sysadmin@odetics.com)
Stefan Rauthenberg (rauthenberg@HHI.DE)
Daniel Hurtubise (daniel@sar3.CANR.Hydro.Qc.CA)
Anchi Zhang (anchi@starbase.neosoft.com)
Bill Kastner (kastnerb@njc.org)
Rocky Gould (rgjj490@wadnr.gov)
Robert Velthuizen (velt@splinter.rad.usf.edu)
Bismark Espinoza (bismark@alta.jpl.nasa.gov)
Kurt R. Radtke (Kurt.Radtke@Criterion.COM)
Nico Garcia (raoul@athena.mit.edu)
Jose Vicente D'Assuncao Fiori
__ Electronic Technician
__ __ \
__ |__| | BASTEC
__ / Rua Chile, 836 - Reboucas
__ __ \ 80215-170 Curitiba - PR - BRASIL
__ |__| | Phone: 55-41-321-7872 / (041) 321-7872
__ / Fax: 55-41-321-7800 / (041) 321-7800
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>
> ************************************************************************
> SRDB ID: 5671
>
> SYNOPSIS: Exabyte 8200 tape drive ejects tape as fast as loaded
>
> DETAIL DESCRIPTION:
>
>
> Periodically an Exabyte 8200 8mm tape drive will immediately eject a tape
> that is put into the drive. Sometimes a look at /var/adm/messages will
> show "SCSI bus reset" messages. Look at the status of the tape drive via
> "mt -f /dev/rstx status." It will be "no tape loaded or drive off line."
>
>
>
> SOLUTION SUMMARY:
>
>
> When Exabyte sells a drive to a vender, there is no way to tell how
> it will be used. For that reason, a generic set of PROMs is put into
> the device. This set of PROMs does not work well with SunOS and UNIX.
>
> The error that appears is called a "servo system" error. The only way
> to clear this is to reboot, or to power cycle the drive. The new level of
> PROM will also allow a "soft servo" reset by pressing the eject button
> while the tape door is open. Also, the new level of PROM will help prevent
> the problem from occurring in the future.
>
> The old PROM levels were:
>
> SVPROM B019
> MXPROM 425A
>
> The NEW PROM levels are:
>
> SVPROM C034
> MXPROM 2618
>
>
>
> BUG REPORT ID: n/a
> PATCH ID: n/a
> PRODUCT AREA: n/a
> PRODUCT: Hardware
> SUNOS RELEASE: SunOS 4.1.2
> UNBUNDLED RELEASE: n/a
> HARDWARE: All
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : Fri Sep 28 2001 - 23:09:11 CDT