"Force Modifier Set", disk noise, and other problems with uVax II

[jay dubb]

  I am posting this for a friend of mine, who doesn't have access to
USENET, so please reply directly to mlevin at jade.tufts.edu.

    I have a VaxStation II/RC, running Ultrix. It is exhibiting some
very weird behavior. If any of the following phenomena sound familiar
to anyone, I'd appreciate hearing ideas on cause and remedy.
1) The TK50 tape drive used to work, but now when I use Tar, it begins
   writing, and then says "tar: I/O write error 0", and hangs
   (seemingly forever). Nothing (^C, ^Z, etc.) can break it of tar,
   and if I exit the window, and start a new one, tar refuses to work  
   saying "/dev/rmt16: no such device or address". This used to only
   happen on tapes that had been used before, but now happens even on
   new tapes.
2) The hard-disk makes weird noises, and sometimes makes whistling
   sounds like a short-wave radio. This is usually followed by a
   core-dump of DecWrite. DecWrite itself coredumps often, and when it
   exits (whether it core-dumped or not) leaves "Xlib error 16" messages
   all over the screen. Sometimes the core-dump is so severe that it
   kills everything - the windows and all, and you have to start from
   the beginning "login:" and DIGITAL logo screen.
3) Once in a while, the DecWindows screens are invaded by low-level
   messages saying "re-synching controller", and other cryptic stuff.
4) When accessing a particular file, I get a message saying "Force
   Modifier Set: LBN = xxx"; the file finally disappeared when I tried
   to uncompress it. What does this mean???
 
    Does anyone have any ideas on what causes this weird stuff to
happen? Its making my life hell - I've lost several files already, and
DECWrite's coredumping makes me retype stuff routinely (since for some
unexplainable reason, the journaling stops as soon as you manually
save your file!). HELP!!!!

					Mike Levin (mlevin at jade.tufts.edu)