Conference stkhlm::magtape

3773.0. "TZ87, "write protect" LED blinks, tape unloads" by SRVPC::Ustinov (Ustinov@mts.mow.dec.com) Wed Jun 04 1997 20:02

	Hello World.

	I have decided to open a new topic after spending a half of the day 
	reading all the articles found with the key word "TZ87". 
	Unfortunately, I could not find the answer for my problem. The similar 
	case has been reported in 3627.0, but there was no any comment to 
	this.

	During last two month I have found three TZ87 tape drives on different 
	sites with the same defect. The first evidence of the wrong behaviour 
	is blinking "Write Protect" LED. The drive successfully completes 
	POST, unlocks the handle and lights green LED. After that, "Write 
	Protect" LED blinks 12 times, approximately once in a second. Then, 
	there is a pause for ~ 10 seconds and again 12 blinks and so on. 

	If I put a tape cartridge in the drive, it pulls the tape inside and 
	unloads it back into the cartridge right after that and opens the 
	handle.

	Looking on the magnetic head with the cover opened, I have discovered, 
	that it does not move after the cartridge has been loaded. On normal 
	drives it usually moves up and down while the tape is loading. 

	The first such a faulty drive (TZ87-TA) I have found at a customer 
	site, when it has been used for a year at least. The second one 
	(TZ87-BX) came with this defect from the repair centre in Nijmegen. 
	The third one (TZ87-VA) has been used by another customer for a few 
	times only before it has demonstrated this fault.  

	So, first of all, I would like to hear any comments for this problem 
	from the "TZ - gurus". And the second, are there anybody who has seen 
	such a tape drives? Please share your opinions.

	Many thanks in advance to all contributors. 

	Alexey Ustinov, MCS Engineer, Digital Moscow.

    
    Should open IPMT case.. I believe this issue has been resolved but
    Support Eng will respond to you via IPMT.
    
    T