9 Nov
2006
9 Nov
'06
10:44 p.m.
My first thought is the EOT sensor (the optical sensor
that detects the
hole in the tape). Maybe it's just clogged up with dirt, maybe it's
electrically malfunctioning. There's normally an IR LED and
phototransistor, one mounted in a block alongside the head, the other at
the bottom of the drive (there's a 45 degree mirror in the cartridge).
-tony
Hadn't thought of the tape "coming off" that way- checked with the owner and
confirmed
that it was what I thought originally: the tape is not rolling onto the spools evenly and
is
coming off the spools in the vertical direction (i.e. wrapping higher and higher until it
misses
the top of the spool). Quite odd- and he says it only happens on this drive.
His hypothesis is an irregularity in the capstain, but I don't see how that would be
an issue
(DC2000 type tapes use the QIC driveband arrangement, right?).