C1537A Media not accepted

[Ralf Luethke]

AMD K6-based Computer, NT4.0, C1537A internal DAT drive.
After approx. 2 years of operation I now have the following problem:
When a tape is inserted, the drive loads it but both leds remain dark, no flashing, no green led indicating a loaded tape. The eject button does not eject the tape. NT Backup software says that no tape is loaded. After power cycling the computer or the drive the drive "sees" the tape: The green led goes on and backup operation is possible. Backup and verify both report no errors then.
Sometimes a writable tape is indicated Read Only. After ejecting and reloading the tape can be written to (if the drive accepts the tape, see top of message).
Thanks in advance.

[harry d brown jr]

Have you applied any Service Packs lately? How often do you clean the drive? Are you using new tapes or rather old ones?

live free or die
harry

[Ralf Luethke]

I havn't installed a service pack lately.
The drive is cleaned after 40 to 50 backup operations.
Normally I use old tapes (> 1 year, each tape is used every second week) but the error shows up with a new tape also.
May the cleaning tape be too old (> 6 years)?
But I don't think that dirty heads are the cause of the problem because when the tape loads correctly backup und verify both report no errors and I never see a flashing orange led, indicating that the heads need cleaning!

Kind regards,
Ralf

[David Ruska]

> The drive is cleaned after 40 to 50 backup operations.

The recommendation is every 5 (full-tape) backups, or every 20 tape-pulling hours.

> May the cleaning tape be too old (> 6 years)?

Current cleaning tapes are good for 50 passes (older tapes were only good for 25). If all of the tape is spooled to the right, the tape is expired.

I'd suggest investing in a new cleaning tape, and then run it 5 times in a row. If you still have problems, then try HP Library & Tape Tools (http://www.hp.com/support/tapetools).