Subject: Re: How to make an Exabyte 8200 barf?
From: [email-masked] (Dave Olson)
Date: 6 Jan 1994 09:18:10 GMT
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi.hardware

In <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Kurt Hillig) writes:
| The 8mm drive on my 4D/360 ate a tape yestarday and won't spit it out -
| the amber light comes on, and pushing the eject button makes the green light
| flash on for a second or two, then it reverts to the amber one again, but
| the tape won't eject.  FWIW this happened while making backups, and since
| it choked the response to all mt commands has been:
| 
| Jan  4 13:20:47 Uranium unix: NOTICE: SCSI tape #6 Exabyte servo failure
| Jan  4 13:20:47 Uranium unix: NOTICE: SCSI tape #6 Exabyte servo failure
| Jan  4 13:20:47 Uranium unix: NOTICE: SCSI tape #6 Hardware error, Non-recoverable
| 
| Naturally, this happened four days after our maintanance contract expired.
| So I'd like to get the tape out and see if it was just a bad tape before
| calling in the (expensive) pros....
| 
| I've tried cycling the power, but that didn't help; I've currently got the
| drive out on the bench, but it's not at all clear what it takes to manually
| eject the disk, and the guts look complicated enough that I don't want to
| start randomly pulling on things....
| 
| Anybody know how to get the tape out?

Try this first, then follow the more extensive procedure somebody
just posted.

Connect the drive to power, but leave the power off.  Hold the
eject button, and turn the power on, *while holding the eject button*.

Exabyte, most DAT, and most CD-ROM drives will try their hardest to
eject media when you do this.  If it's still jammed, then you have to
take the drive apart to various degrees.
--

The most beautiful things in the world are              |   Dave Olson
those from which all excess weight has been             |   Silicon Graphics
removed.  -Henry Ford                                   |   [email-masked]

From: [email-masked] (Kurt Hillig)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi.hardware
Subject: Re: How to make an Exabyte 8200 barf?
Date: 5 Jan 1994 18:45:34 GMT
Organization: Department of Chemistry, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Kurt Hillig) writes:
>The 8mm drive on my 4D/360 ate a tape yestarday and won't spit it out -
>the amber light comes on, and pushing the eject button makes the green light
>flash on for a second or two, then it reverts to the amber one again, but
>the tape won't eject.  
>
>Anybody know how to get the tape out?

Thanks to several respondents, I've got the answer:

On the left side (as you're facing the drive) near the front is an access
hole, through which the cartridge holder / door opener mechanism can be
seen.  Through this hole, to the rear and down a bit (almost directly
behind the front-most #6-32 mounting screw hole) is a little white lever.

Reach in with a small probe (jeweler's screwdriver, etc.) and push this
lever toward the front of the drive; it will snap forward and release the
tape cartridge.

This lever trips a small leaf switch as well, so be careful not to put any
pressure on the switch by mistake.

Also, (hopefully) needless to say, don't do this while the drive is powered
up!

And, to keep the legal department happy, remember that you didn't hear this
from me....

-- 
                            Dr. Kurt Hillig
   Dept. of Chemistry      I always tell the    phone (313)747-2867
 University of Michigan     absolute truth    X.500 [email-masked]
Ann Arbor, MI  48109-1055    as I see it.    [email-masked]

From: Larry Lewis <[email-masked]>
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi.hardware
Subject: Re: How to make an Exabyte 8200 barf?
Organization: U.S. Army Research Lab (ARL), APG, MD.
Date: Wed, 5 Jan 1994 18:24:44 GMT

> Anybody know how to get the tape out?

I'm afraid your 8mm drive has died.  I had a brand new Exabyte 8200 fail in
the identical manner the first time I used it.  Naturally the vendor (Falcon
Systems) replaced it under warranty.

The following instructions for removing a jammed tape were furnished to me
by Falcon Systems when I encountered this problem.  There is nothing in the
instructions indicating that I can't redistribute them, so here goes:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

      Procedure for removing a jammed tape from an Exabyte 8mm tape drive

WARNING:  The operation described below is not guaranteed to work in all
cases to remove jammed tape from an Exabyte 8mm tape drive.  These in-
structions are provided as a courtesy.  Falcon Systems is not responsible
for damage to backup or other tapes or consquent damages due to the use of
this procedure.

1.  Shutdown the host computer.
2.  Power down the tape drive and disconnect it from the host computer.
3.  Unplug the tape drive from its 110 volt source.
4.  Remove the cover from the enclosure unit.
5.  Disconnect the internal scsi interface and id cables from drive. (Leave
    the internal power cable connected.)
6.  Remove the screws holding the tape drive in the enclosure.
7.  Carefully lift the drive out of the open enclosure.
8.  Replace the power cord into the back of the enclosure.
9.  Apply power to the drive.
10. LISTEN for a high-pitched whine lasting 1-2 seconds
11. If you hear some clicks following the whine, you have waited too long.
    Power down the unit and try again at step 9 above.
12. POWER DOWN THE UNIT during the high-pitched whine; you'll need to be
    quick to do this properly!

NOTE: If you fail to do this operation properly, the tape will probably
be wrapped on the loading spool inside the drive.  If this occurs you will
only be able to remove the tape by cutting it, thus destroying the tape.

13. If you are satisfied you accomplished the above successfully, unplug 
    and disconnect the tape drive completely from the enclosure.
14. Locate the rectangular opening at the front right of the drive chassis.
15. Look down into the opening from about 45 degrees and locate the drive
    door release lever.  The lever is normally white, about 1/4-inch long
    and shaped like a blunt triangle or wedge.
16. Using a pointed object such as an unfolded paperclip, apply slight 
    pressure to move the release lever toward the drive door; the door 
    should then pop open, permitting you to remove the tape.
17. You may wish to test the drive's tape eject function while you have
    it out of its enclosure.  If so, put a scratch tape into the drive and
    close the drive door.  Let the loading complete, the press the unload
    button to open the door and eject the tape.  If this fails, repeat the
    procedure starting at step 9 above, or call Falcon technical support
    for assistance.  
17. Replace all cables (being careful to put the SCSI id switch wires back
    they way they were originally) and reassemble the drive into the
    enclosure.  
18. Reconnect the drive to the host and use as normal.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Good luck!

============================================================================
                                Larry Lewis        
                 Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory/NOAA
                                P.O. Box 308
                            Princeton, NJ 08542
                         Telephone: (609) 452-6568
                            Fax: (609) 987-5063 
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                       Internet Address: [email-masked]
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