Windows Stop seeing Tape Drive HP DAT 160 SAS

[Jimmy Desbiens]

Hi,
One of our Customer use HP Data Protector Express 4.00 SP1 to make backup on an internal tape drive (HP DAT 160 SAS) and everything is setup on a HP Z400 Workstation (Windows 7 Pro 32bits). Tape drive is connected to a LSI-SAS PCI-E controller from HP (SAS3442E-HP).
They face some issue with backup its like Windows stop seeing the tape drive. Backup can work one day and then next day it's finish with this error:

Error 1040: No devices specified or all devices are now offline

and all subsequent backup will fail with the same error and if I go to device manager I can see the controller but not the tape drive. I only reboot the computer and the tape drive reappears in the device manager and Backup can work again but we face this issue many time.
When I can't see tape drive in device manager I tried to click on detect new device but that don't do anything and if I go in the event viewer I get these two events:

Nom du journal :System
Source : LSI_SAS
Date : 09/06/11 08:26:57
ID de l’événement :11
Catégorie de la tâche :Aucun
Niveau : Erreur
Mots clés : Classique
Utilisateur : N/A
Ordinateur : Coordonatrice
Description :
Le pilote a détecté une erreur du contrôleur sur \Device\RaidPort0.
XML de l’événement :



11
2
0
0x80000000000000

44534
System
Coordonatrice



\Device\RaidPort0
0F00180001000000000000000B0004C00000143100000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000B0004C00000000000000000




Nom du journal :System
Source : LSI_SAS
Date : 09/06/11 08:26:53
ID de l’événement :129
Catégorie de la tâche :Aucun
Niveau : Avertissement
Mots clés : Classique
Utilisateur : N/A
Ordinateur : Coordonatrice
Description :
Une réinitialisation au périphérique, \Device\RaidPort0, a été émise.
XML de l’événement :



129
3
0
0x80000000000000

44533
System
Coordonatrice



\Device\RaidPort0
0F001800010000000000000081000480040000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000040000810004800000000000000000



The driver of the Tape Drive is already up to date (1.7.0.2) but I update the firmware today and I will hope that will solve the problem.
If it's not the case I think it's probably an hardware issue but do you think it's a controller problem or a tape drive problem?
Did somebody already face the same issue and have a solution or an idea about our problem?

Thanks!
Jimmy

[souhail]

hi,
did you try to plug the controlor card on other slot,the error in Event sys which you got indicate a problem related with SCSI channel,so i think that you have to check cable connected to the tape drive

[Jimmy Desbiens]

The Firmware Update of the drive don't corrected the issue.

I don't think I have an other port where I can plug the controller but I unplug and re plug everything last weeks. They changed the tape drive around 5 months ago because it was defective but now it's not the same problem and it was working great for at least a years and couple month since they changes the drive.

If I understand the better guest is to replace the controller and the cable on warranty?

Thanks!

Jimmy Desbiens

[Jimmy Desbiens]

We change SAS controller but we are still facing same issue.

If somebody have a clue, please lets me know.

Thanks!

Jimmy Desbiens