[comp.sys.sun] Sun Cartridge Tape problem.

asimms@phoenix.princeton.edu (Andrew Simms) (09/21/89)

Do sun cartridge tape drives ever need calibration or adjustment?   When I
try to boot a tape (like the 4.0 install tape), I get:

        >b
        Boot: st(0,0,0)
        st:error 96A0
        >

I would normally assume a hardware problem (of the get it fixed elsewhere
variety), but I get the same message on 3 of my Sun 3/160s.  I coerced one
of the drives into reading a tape once (with repeated retries, but I can
never get them to read a boot tape).

Unfortunately, the machines were here before I  arrived so I don't know if
they ever worked.

Any ideas would be appreciated.  Just send me mail, I will summarize and
post the results.

--Andrew Simms
ams@acm.princeton.edu

mjacob@sun.com (Matt Jacob) (09/24/89)

Gee. It sounds like you might have a Sysgen tape (the few that were
available on 3/160s). Ak. 4.0 tapes are QIC-24 (as opposed to QIC-11 in
previous releases). The 4.0 release in fact required prom upgrades even
for folks with the MT-02 in their system.

If this is indeed the problem, and you're sun sales rep gives you a hard
time, send me your mail address, and I'll drop you a QIC-11 short tape
with boot && standalone copy (which ought to do the trick).