C1539-00485 4/8 GB Dat Drive - DIP switch settings?

[Adrian Warman]

What are the correct (default) switch settings for this tape drive? The switch bank is on the underside of the drive.
The drive was bought second hand, and appears to read tapes fine, but will only write to < 30% of tapes (writing is either a complete success or total failure). I'd like to check that the DIP settings are correct.
Currently, they are all set to ON.
The software I am using is standard 'tar' to the /dev/st0 device, on a Linux (Slackware 9.1) installation. All other 'tar' and 'mt' commands seem to work fine.

[meloni]

hi

this may help
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/genericDocument?lc=en&cc=us&docname=lpg51068

marino

[Rothery Harris]

Dear Adrian,
I would suggest you have some defective tape media. You really should try some new branded media. It would be worth using the cleaning tape as well. You should be aware also that cleaning tapes are limited to 50 cleaning cycles. If a cleaning tape ejects immediately then it is reached the end of its life.

Rothery

[Adrian Warman]

Thanks for the suggestions. Marino's link to the switch settings was very helpful, but unfortunately changing the settings (particularly of switch 3, MRS), didn't improve things. I have tried Rothery's suggestion of using a cleaning tape (5 x in succession), but that didn't help. So, I'll now try getting some completely new tapes and try them.
Good advice from both - thanks again.