2940A failing mt operations with Medium Error

[Christian Robottom Reis]

Hello there,

    We're having a problem with our SDT-9000 DDS-3 tape drive, which is
attached to a rather puny 2940A. We had it installed on a little Pentium
MMX and it was working fine, but since moving it last week to a more
modern machine, we've been getting error on all mt operations. The
kernel complaint is below.  This is what I'm running:

  scsi0 : Adaptec AIC7XXX EISA/VLB/PCI SCSI HBA DRIVER, Rev 6.3.9
          <Adaptec 2940A Ultra SCSI adapter>
          aic7860: Ultra Single Channel A, SCSI Id=7, 3/253 SCBs
    Vendor: SONY      Model: SDT-9000          Rev: 0601
    Type:   Sequential-Access                  ANSI SCSI revision: 02
  st: Version 20040102, bufsize 32768, max init. bufs 4, s/g segs 16

The messages below indicates a Medium Error/Cartidge fault, but no
matter if I try with a new cartridge or old, the same error ensues. 

  st0: Error with sense data: Current st09:00: sense key Medium Error
  Additional sense indicates Cartridge fault
  scsi0: Recovery Initiated
  scsi0: Dumping Card State while idle, at SEQADDR 0x7
  >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Dump Card State Begins <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
  ACCUM = 0x4f, SINDEX = 0x47, DINDEX = 0x25, ARG_2 = 0x0
  HCNT = 0x0 SCBPTR = 0x0
  SCSISIGI[0x0] ERROR[0x0] SCSIBUSL[0x0] LASTPHASE[0x1] 
  SCSISEQ[0x12] SBLKCTL[0x0] SCSIRATE[0x0] SEQCTL[0x10] 
  SEQ_FLAGS[0xc0] SSTAT0[0x5] SSTAT1[0xa] SSTAT2[0x0] 
  SSTAT3[0x0] SIMODE0[0x0] SIMODE1[0xa4] SXFRCTL0[0x80] 
  DFCNTRL[0x0] DFSTATUS[0x2d] 
  STACK: 0x0 0x164 0x1a5 0x3
  SCB count = 5
  Kernel NEXTQSCB = 4
  Card NEXTQSCB = 4
  QINFIFO entries: 
  Waiting Queue entries: 
  Disconnected Queue entries: 0:3 
  QOUTFIFO entries: 
  Sequencer Free SCB List: 1 2 
  Sequencer SCB Info: 
    0 SCB_CONTROL[0x44] SCB_SCSIID[0x47] SCB_LUN[0x0] SCB_TAG[0x3] 
    1 SCB_CONTROL[0x0] SCB_SCSIID[0xff] SCB_LUN[0xff] SCB_TAG[0xff] 
    2 SCB_CONTROL[0x0] SCB_SCSIID[0xff] SCB_LUN[0xff] SCB_TAG[0xff] 
  Pending list: 
    3 SCB_CONTROL[0x40] SCB_SCSIID[0x47] SCB_LUN[0x0] 
  Kernel Free SCB list: 2 1 0 
  Untagged Q(4): 3 
  scsi0: Host Status: Failed(0) 
  DevQ(0:4:0): 0 waiting
  <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< Dump Card State Ends >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
  (scsi0:A:4:0): SCB 0x3 - timed out
  sg[0] - Addr 0x298000 : Length 32768
  (scsi0:A:4:0): Queuing a BDR SCB
  (scsi0:A:4:0): Bus Device Reset Message Sent
  Recovery SCB completes
  scsi0: Bus Device Reset on A:4. 1 SCBs aborted
  st0: Error 70000 (sugg. bt 0x0, driver bt 0x0, host bt 0x7).
  st0: Error 8 (sugg. bt 0x0, driver bt 0x0, host bt 0x0).
  st0: Error on write filemark.
  st0: Error 8 (sugg. bt 0x0, driver bt 0x0, host bt 0x0).

Does it look like a busted drive, adapter, bad terminator, bad power
supply or perhaps all at once? 

Take care,
--
Christian Robottom Reis | http://async.com.br/~kiko/ | [+55 16] 3361 2331