Exabyte Tape Drive is Hung

PROBLEM: The tape drive hangs during a transaction with MiniDAQ.

SYMPTOM: During a run--usually a long, overnight cosmic run writing zero-suppressed data infrequently--data-taking stops spontaneously; the yellow ``write'' light on the tape drive is stuck on.

REMEDY: There is probably no quick, graceful fix for this.

1. End the run; since MiniDAQ thinks that it is in the middle of writing to the tape (which it is), it cannot be ended by requesting an ``End'' through Run Control. Instead, you can try an ``abort'' from Run Control, or go the MiniDAQ desktop, select the Run_w_eye window and click on ``Force End'' .
2. This will probably not succeed. You will probably have to eject the tape manually.
3. MiniDAQ will probably still be hung, still trying to write to the tape. Bite the bullet, reboot MiniDAQ (reset button on left-most processor in MiniDAQ crate), then do Pedestal and Padpulser runs to reload pedestals and gains.

Written: 03-JUL-1997 by Roy Bossingham
Last Modified:

Page maintenance:

Roy Bossingham, LBNL
RRBossingham@lbl.gov