Streamer 1599 calibration?

[Berthold Janssen]

I have got a HP 1599a streamer (technically identical to 1533, I think??), just bought at ebay. It seemed to work fine as long as I tested it with a 90m-tape. But now I used a new 120m tape and I got some problems with making a backup, or more precisely: It does not work.

The tape is beeing loaded and the streamer seems to be able to recognise it. But when I try to do a backup, with the start of the writing process the tape is beeing transported forth and back, again and again (I have seen this because I am operating the streamer now without its coverage), interrupted by the scaring noise produced by the construction at the back of the streamer (This construction consists of many green plastic sheets fixed in their center and is able to rotate pretty fast and than to touch the read/write head at the back, so it seems to be a cleaner for the read/write head). After a while I stop the process because the backup program shows now progress at all after a couple of minutes working at the same file.

Anyway, this streamer does not work correctly, it is out of warranty and a repair by HP is not affordable for me. But I am quite sure that it s only the calibration of the tape or the read/write head, that does not fit, and this should be possible to be repaired by myself.

I opened the streamer (this is easy done without any screws), reconnected it to the computer and looked at the mechanics working inside. It seems to me that there are only two screws to calibrate the hight in which the tape passes the rotating head. They fix the cylinders that move the tape to the head area and hold the tape there while it is moved along the head. These screws seem most probably to be made for calibration.

Now the questions:

1. Does anybody (hello technicians from hp!) know, that my problem is definitly no calibration problem, but for example is definitly a problem with a deffect head?

2. Does anybody know if these screws are in deed the points of calibration? If not, where could this calibration point(s) be?

3. I allready tried to change the calibration (had nothing to loose...) by rotating the screws a bit. It seems to have an effect, but it still does not work correctly. Does anybody know, HOW to calibrate the streamer?

I would be very happy to get constructive answers about my try of repair, maybe somebody else allready did the same?

Thank you

Berthold Janssen

[Eugeny Brychkov]

Berthold,
please do not touch anything inside the drive.
Please take the following steps:
- download and install HP Library and Tape Tools from http://www.hp.com/cposupport/information_storage/support_doc/lpg50128.html ;
- try testing and analyzing you drive;
- generate support ticket for drive - it wiill tell you with which type of tapes your drive is compatible and which problems your drive may have;
- attach support ticket to your next reply.
Please remember that DAT (DDS) drives should be cleaner EVERY 5 full backups or every 20 tape pulling hours. Do not overuse cleaning tapes
Eugeny

PS. I saw impressive ebay advertizing campaign launched, but would not buy storage devices from them. It may be wotrh because of low price, but not because they do not guarantee reliability...