Exabyte EXB-8505 8mm manual Loading New Microcode, Determining When the Tape Drive Needs Cleaning

4Requirements for Use

Determining When the Tape Drive Needs Cleaning

You should clean the tape drive’s heads and tape path after every 30 tape motion hours. This cleaning frequency does not depend on the format in which you write and read data. However, if you are using the tape drive in a particularly dirty environment or if you operate it infrequently, you may want to clean it more often than every 30 tape motion hours. Cleaning the tape drive helps to ensure that it will perform according to its specifications.

Time-to-Clean LED Indication

The tape drive keeps track of tape motion hours internally. When 30 tape motion hours have elapsed, the top and bottom LEDs will flash rapidly and the middle LED will flash irregularly, depending on SCSI bus activity (see Table 4-3). For best results, clean the tape drive as soon as possible after the LEDs begin flashing.

REQUEST SENSE (03h) Command

If desired, you can issue a REQUEST SENSE (03h) command and look at the setting of the CLN and CLND bits (byte 21, bits 4 and 3). If the CLN bit is set to 1, the tape drive needs to be cleaned. This bit is reset to 0 when a successful cleaning cycle has been performed. The CLND bit is set to 1 when the tape drive has been cleaned and is reset to 0 when the next REQUEST SENSE command is received.

Loading New Microcode

To upgrade the microcode in the tape drive, you can:

Use a microcode update tape that you obtain from Exabyte (no special software required)

Create a microcode update tape from another tape drive using the

Exabyte CTS Monitor program

Use Exabyte microcode update diskettes with CTS Monitor

Copy microcode from the Exabyte Technical Support bulletin board and load it in your tape drive using CTS Monitor

4-18	EXB-8205 and EXB-8505	510504
	(Standard and XL)