Pertec / 9 track cable question

Hi all, I've had a malfuntioning magtape setup on my 11/23+ for some time and I'm wondering, is it the card, cabling, or drive? here's what I've got: Overland OD3201 magtape drive (works fine when the parallel port connection is used when connected to a PC) Dilog DQ132 pertec tape controller Two straight-through ribbon cables, 50 pin IDC on one end, 50 pin cardedge on the other. J1 on card is cabled to P1 on drive. J2 on card is cabled to P2 on drive. When I try to perform an operation on the tape drive, it times out The drive does spin a bit first. Rewind operations work correctly. It seems to do this no matter how I have the card configured. Are these cables really supposed to be straight through, or what am I missing? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks! Julian