Hello Fellow Listers,

I am running an HP3000 with a DLT7000 tape drive.  For the first 6 or 7 months
of use on the DLT drive, all had been well.  Now, on occasion when loading a
tape into the drive, we hear a short grinding type of noise and the use cleaning
tape light comes on for a short time.  Typically the tape will go ahead and
mount and we can store or restore, but we have also had occasion where the tape
won't mount until we pull the tape out and re-insert it into the drive.

The only answer HP has given us is that this is normal and we should not worry
about it because it could be some sort of internal cleaning mechanism or some
sort of head alignment happening, but it's normal whatever it is.

HP is bringing us a new drive with the latest firmware because we have also had
some stores fail due to a message saying there was a power failure on ldev 9
(our DLT drive), but they do not anticipate this helping with the above issue.

Do other DLT users out there experience the same noise and cleaning light
flashing that we do?  Can anyone give me any other ideas as to what might be
causing this?

Any help is appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
Brad Sites
Technical Services Administrator
Brookstone