HPE LTO-6 6650 will not write any data, assessment tests fail

[JhonnyTheJeccer]

I have a HPE  LTO-6 6650 tape drive, but i cannot get it to work. Whatever i try, the drive seems to be unable to write any data to any tape (first tested with IBM tapes, then with a HPE tape). The drive assessment tests all fail and all logs report the same problem:

Warning (Data written: 0.0 MB)

(full log of one of the IBM tapes is at https://pastebin.com/33rb2W1G, i can create one for the HPE tape if necessary)

Curiously, all tests report that no HPE-labelled tape was used, even on the HPE-tape itself.

When trying a read/write test, it reports the following:

Drive reported unrecoverable I/O error condition, test phase cannot proceed.

and

A write error occurred. Please clean the drive with an unexpired cleaning cartridge and re-run the test.

As instructed, i cleaned the drive with a new cleaning tape, but afterwards nothing changed and this messages keeps appearing.
System: Pop!OS 20.10 (but also tested on 20.04)
HPE_LTT version: 4.22

[Jeff_HPE]

If you clean a drive several times and it continues to fail the drive assesment test,   you will more than likely need to replace the drive.