SUMMARY: Exabyte won't eject tape

From: wmg@pixels.att.com
Date: Tue Jan 25 1994 - 23:22:11 CST


Below is a summary of what seems to be the only 2 fixes that I
received. The first fix was the most common. Neither helped
in my case. I will have to send the drive out for repair. Thanks
to the following people for responding. The original messages
is at the end of this message for those that care.

         bob@hobbes.dtcc.edu (Bob Rahe)
         bill@Access.COM ( Bill Hunter [Sun Instructor / Support])
         vispi@lgc.com
         fmufti@genetics.bio-rad.com (Fazeel Mufti 6895)
         massie@nfka.norfolk.syr.ge.com (Gerry Massie 858-1775)
         pjb@23kgroup.com (Paul J. Bell)

Solution number 1
-------------------------------------------------------------

More likely than not, your Exabyte must have chewed up the tape.
It will start working once the tape has been ejected.

Perform the following steps to manually eject the tape.

a) Unscrew the casing of the Exabyte.
b) There is a 1/2" by 3/4" window above the actual tape drive.
   There are a couple of levers visible. There is also a cog wheel and
   stuff there.
c) Looking down at the top of the Exabyte, with the door away from you,
   at the bottom right corner of the window, there is a small lever.
   With a thin object, push the lever towards you. This will eject the
   tape.

   ---------------------------------
   | |
   | Window |
   | ------- |
   | | | |
   | | | |Door
   | | | |
   | -#----- |
   | <-- |
   ---------------------------------

   # The lever you need to push.

Solution number 2
-------------------------------------------------------------

  I have a 8500 that gave me some similar problems at one time. I took the
drive out of the Sun box and found that the transport tape loading mechanism
had two screws holding onto the front of the actual drive. One on the screws
on this drive had worked itself loose. Tightening it has rendered the drive
normal again. ( at least I haven't had any trouble with it since.... )

original message
-------------------------------------------------------------

> I have an Exabyte EXB-8200 8mm tape drive that has decided not
> to eject tapes anymore. What happens is this; If I either
> run 'mt -f /dev/rst1 offline' or push the button on the
> front of the drive the drive will attempt to unload the
> tape but never open the door. The door seems to be unlatched
> because to get the drive to work again I must push on the
> door until it click shut before the drive will response
> to anymore commands. Any advice on how to fix this problem
> and lacking that, who do you recommend to repair the drive.
> It was purchased from Sun but is not under a service contract.
> Any suggestions will be welcomed.
>
> Thanks in advance
>

----
William M. Gilroy
AT&T Image Solutions

Internet: William.M.Gilroy@att.com Uucp: att!pixels!wmg Voice: (908) 764-6066 Fax: (908) 764-6060



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