On Mon, Nov 17, 2003 at 02:30:34PM -0800, Simon J. Gerraty wrote:
  | 
  | On Mon, 17 Nov 2003 22:43:59 +0100, Manuel Bouyer writes:
  | >Well, it seems the firmware is too busy to even return an error
  | >code :( You said it would sometime properly load the tape ?
  | 
  | Usually it would load ok, but sometimes it would hang - not even
  | transport the tape looking to check the density etc.
  | 
  | >Did you try with a brand new tape ? If the drive was really dirty,
  | >maybe the tapes are dirty too.
  | 
  | Will try a new tape tonight.  It processed a cleaning tape happily.
  | Normally when it thinks its dirty it lights a "use cleaning tape" led.
  | Its only done that once since I've had it actually.

If I recall correctly, the "cleaning light" on DLTs is set when the
firmware detects that the (read) error rate exceeds a certain
threshold.

If you do determine that the drive is faulty, you can usually get them
serviced for significantly less than it costs to replace them with an
equivalent unit.