28 May
2011
28 May
'11
2:03 p.m.
Jerome H. Fine wrote:
After 20 years, I need to use my TK25 again.
I now remember why I switched to the TK70. I takes
about 4 minutes every time I need to change a tape.
Now there is a hardware problem. When I insert
a different tape, the tension cycle shows a flashing
(left side of the front panel) green light until the cycle
is complete. I am confident that the light changed
to solid green in the past, but now the light stays
unlit and the unit is not ready. At first, I tried to
boot RT-11, but no luck. By accident, I needed
to turn off the power, and then turn it back on.
The TK25 power was left on and as soon as
the PDP-11 started the boot cycle, the green
light on the TK25 turned solid green. After
RT-11 had booted from the hard drive, the TK25
is ready and everything works.
Any suggestions? Controller? Drive? Cable?
Since it takes 4 minutes for the tension cycle,
having to boot again (less than a minute) is not
a deal breaker.
Also, now just a boot turns the green light on.
Just to clarify:
An ordinary boot via an RT-11 command does
not solve the problem. The BOOT command
must be done via the "restart" button on the
front panel of the BA23 box.
Thank you in advance for any suggestions?
Jerome Fine