CASTalk.com

Howard Goldstein · Guest

Recently purchased a pulled Quantum TH3AA (scsi DLT3XT). Upon
installing I've got the entire left row of leds (density) doing the
blink, and the controller doesn't recognize anything on the selected
ID.

The quantum online manual says this is probably a hardware failure
detected during the drive's POST. The reason I'm posting this is to
meekly ask whether anyone has ever managed to clear this condition
before I firmly conclude that I'm sitting on a bum drive just like the
diag section in the manual says I am. TIA

RPR · Guest

The left hand side LEDs are owned by the policy (front end) processor,
and it has run into a fatal error. You can't do much except trying to
re-seat connectors and looking for service. Also make sure that the
power is clean.

Ralf-Peter

Howard Goldstein · Guest

On 7 Dec 2004 12:37:31 -0800, RPR <rohbeck@yahoo.com> wrote:
: The left hand side LEDs are owned by the policy (front end) processor,
: and it has run into a fatal error. You can't do much except trying to
: re-seat connectors and looking for service. Also make sure that the
: power is clean.

Ralf-Peter, I've thanked you seperately via email (I hope you saw it).
Subsequent to your email I've observed the following (a long story
that will end in a suspected power on reset issue in the drive
question)

1. On both my heavily-loaded production system and a very lightly
loaded old machine I have in a corner, the drive (a quantum
DLT2000, or TH3AA)(although it says "15/30 GB DLT on it) always power
up resets into the blinky left hand density leds.

2. Just before shipping it back to the seller who says it was tested
and burned in OK at his place, on a whim I powered up the drive on one
of the boxes by powering it up into an already running system. (After
blowing up an older ATA drive that didn't like a spark this caused)
when I power up the tape drive in such a config the POST seems to pass.

3. Unfortunately when it's connected to the SCSI bus the above trick
doesn't work :( But I've made the drive work and did a level 0 backup
and verify that passed with flying colors if I first a) start up the
system, b) power up the drive, c) connect it to the SCSI bus (2940UW).

Since I'm at least running in some respect I feel a bit more
comfortable playing with the drive. Do you Ralf-Peter, or might
anyone else 'round these parts know if there are power on reset issues
with this drive and, if so, in that it's been declared unsupported by
quantum, if there's a fix I can try effect on it?

Thanks in advance, Howard

RPR · Guest

The only thing I can imagine would be bus termination. (S)DLT drives
are known to misbehave sometimes if they are connected to an
unterminated bus, and not having Termpower is similar to an
unterminated bus. So, you may want to check if your host adapter
supplies Termpower. Maybe its fuse is blown or something like that.

BTW, the drive is a DLT2000XT. It supports 15/30 GB with DLTape IIIXT
(longer) tapes.

Ralf-Peter

Howard Goldstein · Guest

On 13 Dec 2004 09:51:05 -0800, RPR <rohbeck@yahoo.com> wrote:
: The only thing I can imagine would be bus termination. (S)DLT drives
: are known to misbehave sometimes if they are connected to an
: unterminated bus, and not having Termpower is similar to an
: unterminated bus. So, you may want to check if your host adapter
: supplies Termpower. Maybe its fuse is blown or something like that.

Before the article expires off my swerver I just want to thank you
Rolf-Peter publicly for your kind assistance. After toasting an IDE
drive in the box playing with power to the tape drive to coerce the
2KXT into powering up into a useful state I've been avoiding powering
it down to configure everyone else on the bus to supply term power but
when that moment comes, I'll do so and again thank you.

Regards, h

	CASTalk.com Forum Index -> Storage System	All times are GMT
Page 1 of 1