HP35470A DDS-1 DAT-Streamer

[Christian Bootz]

I have a HP35470 DDS-1 Streamer that seems to be defective. After power on the system the two leds on the front side are glowing green (not flashing). The Adaptec AHA2940 BIOS does not regognize the drive on the SCSI bus. The leds stay green and no more happens.
The two termination resistors are set but the termination power jumper is not closed.
Is the drive really defective or does anybody know a trick to solve the problem ?

THX

Christian

[Curt Thompson]

Hello Christian,

According to my old users manual, two green leds mean that the drive is online and a tape is loaded. If there is no tape actually in the drive, then you do have a problem with the drive mechanism. The normal indication for a DDS1 drive with no tape loaded is both leds OFF.

Old DDS1 drives failed a lot. The problem may be with the media sensor switches located on the drive transport plate that line up with the holes on the front-right corner of the tape media shell.

Good Luck,
Curt

[Christian Bootz]

Hello Curt,
Thank You for your hint. I have checked the media sensor switches at the right side. There are three small pins, all of them seems to be OK.
So I have dismounted the complete device. After stripping the mechanical unit from the controller board i have connected the controller unit with the power adapter from the pc. The both leds still light green. After assembling the drive and testing in pc the both leds still light green. So i think the controller unit may be defective.
Is there a possibility to check if the firmware is still alive ?

Christian

[Christian Bootz]

Does anybody know how I can reload the firmware on the streamer although the streamer is not recognized in SCSI-BIOS ?

Greetings...

Christian

[Curt Thompson]

Hello Christian,

When working properly, the firmware will initiate a selftest when power is applied to the tape drive. When the selftest begins, the two leds blink in unison several times indicating that the selftest has started. After the test has finished, the leds should both be OFF if the test has passed and no media is loaded. Otherwise, some part of the mechanism/electronics have failed.

I don't believe that any firmware upgrades exist anymore at www.hp.com for DDS1 tape drives. Also, drive firmware could be downloaded to drives without connection to a SCSI bus using a Firmware Update Tape. I would not hold too much hope trying to find one of them either.

Sorry, but DDS1 is just too dang old.

Good Luck,
Curt