DAT tape load failures

[Ayman Altounji]

Our Proliant 3000 has a SCSI DAT tape drive installed. The tape drive is apparently an HP model C1537A (DDS3).

At seemingly random intervals when I attempt to load a tape into the drive the tape fails to load correctly. What I mean by this is that the tape cartridge is loaded into the drive but there is no indication of tape activity. I am unable to unload the tape using the tape eject button and the operating system does not seem to have any control over the tape drive.

The only way I have found of regaining control over the tape drive is to do a hard reset (ie, shutdown and power off). The tape then responds in a normal way.

In the last week I have had to perform a hard reset 3 times. I have also had the tape drive changed within the last 6 months and am cleaning the drive regularly, although inserting the cleaning tape also risks having to do a hard reset if the tape drive fails to eject the cleaning tape.

Has anyone else experienced a similar problem? Is there a BIOS or firmware update I can apply to correct this problem?

[Sunil Jerath]

Please contact Storage Group at HP.