Help with tape cardrige in 3B2/400

[ilan343 at violet.berkeley.edu]

I having problems with the tape drive in a 3B2/400, actually the drive
in unusable.

Typical symptoms:

	Formatting a tape gives the message
	
	ctcfmt: format failed for /dev/rsA/ctape1 errno=5

        
	Getting info on a supposedly OK backup tape gives me

	ctcinfo: cannot open /dev/rsA/ctape1 error=215


I am running SysV 3.0, and already tried reinstalling the Cartrige Tape
Utilities.

Can any kind soul give me a hint if this hardware or software related?
Is there an easy fix I could try ?

Thank for you help,

		Geraldo Veiga