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Re: DLT8000 Flashing LEDs

 
Jason Booms
Occasional Advisor

Re: DLT8000 Flashing LEDs

Just a last update from me. I took out the back up, used 2 cans of air to make sure everything was cleaned out, and put it back in. Works great now. Thanks David for all of your help.
Just an ME in a CE world
Verne Britton
Regular Advisor

Re: DLT8000 Flashing LEDs

Leon mentions a problem caused by having a cartridge just sit in the drive ... and that firmware V86 changes a timer to prevent problems ... my question, I have three drives that have this blinking light situation ... do I just throw them away ?

I'm hoping there is some easy cheap fix :-)
(in addition to upgrading the firmware of course once they are working again)


Verne
Rob Leadbeater
Honored Contributor

Re: DLT8000 Flashing LEDs

Verne,

If you have a problem, please start a new thread rather than continuing a 4 year old one !

Cheers,

Rob
David Ruska
Honored Contributor

Re: DLT8000 Flashing LEDs

Here is the description of the V86 change (taken from the LTT firmware details):
Fixed between versions V059 and V086
Added a low power mode used while waiting for the drive handle to be opened. If after 10 minutes the handle has not been opened, the handle will lock and the holding tension on the tape will be reduced. At this point, the eject button, a SCSI unload command, or library unload command must be used to open the handle and remove the cartridge. A SCSI load command or library load command will load the cartridge and also remove the drive from the low power state.

That was the release notes for the OML3 (library version) of the firmware. For HP standalone drives, I think the change was around V89. Here's a support document extract:
---

QUESTION:
Is there a problem if I cannot lift the unload handle and the green operate handle LED is flashing?

ANSWER:
An improved LED sequence was introduced with V89 firmware. If the unload handle is not operated within ten minutes of a back up completing, the drive enters a low power mode and the unload handle is locked. The amber In use LED is illuminated and the green Operate Handle LED flashes. To unload the tape the unload button should be pressed and the green Operate Handle LED will illuminate and the unload handle can be operated after two seconds.

There is no change to the unload process if carried out within ten minutes of a backup completing.
---

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?objectID=c00216567тМй=en&cc=us&taskId=110&contentType=SupportFAQ&prodSeriesId=63897&prodTypeId=12169
The journey IS the reward.
Christopher J Brown
New Member

Re: DLT8000 Flashing LEDs

This thread may be four years old, but it's still fresh and exciting. I just extracted a tape and rethreaded a leader on a Compaq 40/80 DLT an hour ago.

What is the URL for the latest firmware?
Verne Britton
Regular Advisor

Re: DLT8000 Flashing LEDs

since it was suggested to start a new entry, I did:

http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=1129482

but now I'm not sure about forum etiquette ... do I start posting twice into both threads, or just close the new one in favor of this old one?

Firmware is at:

ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/information_storage/software/ltt/firmware/


DAVID, thanks for those details ... but my original problem is still here :-) Whatever burns out has burnt out on me ... so is there any way to fix my 3 broken drives, or do I now have some new doorstops?

p.s. even though the drive will not load a tape, I was able to use LTT to upgrade the firmware to v89 ... but it made no difference (i.e., I still get the 4 flashing LEDs and the drive will not load a tape)

Verne
David Ruska
Honored Contributor

Re: DLT8000 Flashing LEDs


> What is the URL for the latest firmware?

The one provided above is where LTT finds it's files. The easiest way to see what the latest version of firmware is however is directly within LTT. Just use "File -> Get Files from Web", and you can see the latest version of firmware for all support products and all the various personalities. The latest revision often depends on the drive personality. The standalone and autoloader/library versions are often different.

> DAVID, thanks for those details ... but my original problem is still here

I wanted to clarify the change in behavior with the newer code and flashing operate handle LED.

If you have ALL lights flashing on either the right or left side of the drive, the drive has a hard error. The user manual says:

If all the right side or left side lights flash on the front panel:
There is a fault with the drive.
1 Try turning the power switch on the drive off and then on again.
2 If the problem persists, call for service.

One common cause is a dropped leader (perhaps due to a clogged BOT/EOT sensor). That was covered earler in this thread.

Another cause of the flashing lights would be a power-on self test (POST) failure. That could be something like a RAM error or a mechanical problem (i.e. unable to turn the motors).

If you can run LTT (which it sounds like you can, since you could flash firmware) then the drive is alive enough to talk on the bus. In that case, you can run LTT, select the drive, click on the support tool, and then save the support ticket. Post the support ticket here (as someone had done earlier) and we can review the drive event log to see what type of errors are logged (such as POST failures).
The journey IS the reward.
David Ruska
Honored Contributor

Re: DLT8000 Flashing LEDs


> since it was suggested to start a new entry, ...

Since your problem seems similar, there's no reason you need to start a new post. A number of folks (like me) may still have this one set for email notification and are curious for new info.

The only downside is you can't award any points to folks providing you with assistance. No big deal.
The journey IS the reward.
Verne Britton
Regular Advisor

Re: DLT8000 Flashing LEDs

Maybe I am missing something, but in using LTT on OpenVMS (v7.3-2, Alpha 4100), I could not get the SAVE function to work ... it kept making a zero length file.

So I cut/pasted from an Xwindow the on-screen display ... I hope that will be helpful (attached to this entry, all text but I was worried about ITRC formatting of it).

If there is a better way to get info via LTT on VMS, please let me know :-)

If push comes to shove, I could try to find a SCSI card and put the tape drive onto a WinXP box ... for diagnostic purposes.

Upon power-up, the drive seems to pass POST. Then we insert a tape and things go downhill from there. We cleaned (well, tried to clean :-)) a sensor as well as blew it out well ... it will hook the leader and wind that onto the takeup reel, then it continues to wind forward a bit, searching for something, then gives up and flashes all 4 LEDs on the right, then recovers and advances the tape some more, then flashes again.

If we let it go, I assume it would slowly move thru the entire cartridge :-)

With v89 firmware, it finally stops actually (or stops right away, I forget) ... it was with the old v80 firmware that it would just keep on going ...

or I am confused... maybe I had to press the UNLOAD button (right hand button) for the retrys ... in any case it would never ever rewind :-) One test tape we were able to rewind, the others we cut the tape and manually pulled it from the takeup reel and threw the tape away.

With 3 to play with, I have tried so many things and am so frustrated ... sorry for not having a more detailed accurate description above :-)


Verne
David Ruska
Honored Contributor

Re: DLT8000 Flashing LEDs

> Maybe I am missing something, but in using LTT on OpenVMS (v7.3-2, Alpha 4100), I could not get the SAVE function to work ... it kept making a zero length file.

I don't have OpenVMS to try (not a real common OS), but I've let the LTT_team know about this.

> So I cut/pasted from an Xwindow the on-screen display ... I hope that will be helpful

Yep, that works. The only problem is I believe you had this set to "normal" detail level, which supresses some detail in the error logs. If you can change the display to say "everything" (in the command line, I beleve you set the detail level to a higher number [like 4?]). If you can the provide the same type of capture, that will help.

You are correct - there are no POST errors.

There are some SCSI errors (unknown event) which could be a cabling/termination issue.

There's also an A402 error logged at the same Power on Hour as the current hour. In the hex data shown at the higher detail level, it will have specific error codes I can look up.
The journey IS the reward.