need refresher course on DC600A / AT&T STU problems

[John Canning]

Here's what I've got on the thread:

In article <1990Nov13.195548.17967 at DMI.USherb.CA> beauchem at terre.DMI.USherb.CA (Denis Beauchemin) writes:
>Hi everybody,
>
>We are plaged by a "I/O Error on write(), errno 5, I/O Error" message almost
>every time we use our 120 MB tape drives (we have 3 on different 6386 systems).
>Could someone tell me what is the cause of these errors?
>
>I know it's related to hardware, but changing the tape drive or the media
>doesn't make it go away.  We can't do reliable backups because of that!  Help!
>(and AT&T isn't very helpful either)
>
>Please answer by email since I cannot keep up with this list...

Here's an answer for the rest of the net (just in case):

We have had similar errors on machines all over the place.  This
summer, AT&T announced (very quietly) that the only recommended tape
for the 6386 125MB tape drive is the DC-6150.  Other tapes (such
as the DC-600A, which used to be recommended), have turned out
not to work reliably.

AT&T recommends replacing a tape after 30 complete read/writes.  They
also recommend cleaning the tape heads weekly, and especially after
using a brand new tape.

We have found that once you get an I/O error #5, you must either
reboot the system, or issue the command tapectl -r.  Both actions
appear to reset the tape drive, which seems like a necessary step.

Now, if only AT&T would add this information to their user's manual...

John Canning					...uunet!uvm-gen!banzai!john
The People's Computer Company			...attmail!banzai!john
Williston, Vermont				john at banzai.pcc.com
802-864-0747