[PLUG] Re: Tape Drives and Power Supplies

[Russell Senior]

>>>>> "Russell" == Russell Senior <seniorr at aracnet.com> writes:

Russell> I'll try reverting (b) and (c) one at a time until I get
Russell> another failure (or don't).  I can't revert the BIOS as Intel
Russell> doesn't distribute old BIOS (and I don't really want to
Russell> anyway).  I particularly would like to get my tape drive
Russell> back.

Swapped client's tape drive back in and now I can't write more than
about a meg and a half, which is extremely reminiscent of the behavior
I was seeing a couple days ago.  And it appears that must be stuck in
a buffer anyway (and never makes it to tape), because:

  # dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/nst0 bs=32768 count=1    
  dd: writing `/dev/nst0': Input/output error
  1+0 records in
  0+0 records out
  dd: closing output file `/dev/nst0': Input/output error

and because even after:

  # dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/nst0 obs=512 count=32768
  dd: writing to `/dev/nst0': Input/output error
  2944+0 records in
  2943+0 records out
  dd: closing output file `/dev/nst0': Input/output error

which apparently writes the ~1.5 meg to tape, a rewind is nearly
instantaneous.

It is possible there is a faulty connection at the tape drive.  I
noticed today that one of the wire retention mechanisms on the
connector didn't close.  The connector felt and looked seated, but I
couldn't get the wire (for those not familiar with the 50-pin
centronics connectors, think the printer end of a parallel port cable)
into the little holder ears on one side.

  <http://www.cablestogo.com/images/connectors/c50F.jpg>

I'll check again tomorrow.  Anyway, the plot thickens.


-- 
Russell Senior         ``I have nine fingers; you have ten.''
seniorr at aracnet.com