Tape drive not powering on in Dell TL2000

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ipreferpie

Member
May 27, 2018
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Hi everyone, I don't really know which subforum to best place this topic in but I'm quite desperate in seeking some help. I recently switched from a single external LTO drive to a Dell TL2000 library. I also bought another IBM Ultrium 8HH that's already in a sled and compatible with the IBM TS4300. Upon receiving it, I updated my library firmware (F.11/3.20e) and placed the drive (with new firmware J4D1) sled into the mount. After powering it up, no lights on the sled/drive turn on even though the library is on. The library doesn't show that a drive is connected either.

Is it likely the sled power connector has problems rather than the drive itself? Or am I missing something that I need to do to enable the drive power on sequence? Many thanks!
 

Terry Kennedy

Well-Known Member
Jun 25, 2015
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New York City
www.glaver.org
Hi everyone, I don't really know which subforum to best place this topic in but I'm quite desperate in seeking some help. I recently switched from a single external LTO drive to a Dell TL2000 library. I also bought another IBM Ultrium 8HH that's already in a sled and compatible with the IBM TS4300. Upon receiving it, I updated my library firmware (F.11/3.20e) and placed the drive (with new firmware J4D1) sled into the mount. After powering it up, no lights on the sled/drive turn on even though the library is on. The library doesn't show that a drive is connected either.

Is it likely the sled power connector has problems rather than the drive itself? Or am I missing something that I need to do to enable the drive power on sequence? Many thanks!
Not sure what a TS4300 is. The IBM equivalents to the Dell TL2000/TL4000 are TS3100/TS3200 (machine type 3573).

There are some slot rules when mixing HH and FH sleds, but that isn't likely to be the problem, based on your description.

Sometimes the library needs to be power cycled a few times to get it to notice added / removed / changed drives. On the front panel LCD, do you see anything (checkmark, X or exclamation point) under the "1 2 3 4" drive status display? Did this library ever work with another drive, or did you purchase it "naked" and add this drive as the first drive? Lastly, have you checked to make sure this is an LTO8 drive in the sled? A lot of drives get stripped out of sleds and sold as generic internal drives, then sometimes someone comes along and puts some other drive into the sled, often forgetting to connect the library interface cable and/or forget to set the drive config switches appropriately. Long shot - there are some wimpy power supplies out there that only support a single drive. Does your library have both power supplies connected and turned on (good status LEDs?). Lastly, make sure that the card edge connector on the sled is seated firmly in the backplane connector (they are spring loaded).
 

thardie

New Member
Mar 6, 2022
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I've got a TL2000 and TL4000 library. Was running LTO5 FC drives in it. I went and bought a LTO8 HH drive listed as being for a TS4300. It mechanically goes in, but the little daughterboard on the side of the sled is at a different height (5.3mm from the backing metal to the bottom of the connector for the TS4300 versus 13mm on the TL2000/4000), so the connector missed docking completely, leading to the drive not getting any power. I suspect this is where the complaints you see that come from "My drive doesn't power up".

The drive I bought off eBay was a SAS drive, so I got an LTO5 HH SAS drive sled that did have the correct height daughterboard, and removed the drive from the sled with the wrong height daughterboard. It used 2 smaller data cables to go to the drive. Transplanting it into the LTO5 HH sled, it uses 1 larger comms cable (on top of the regular SAS connector), but the LTO8 IBM drive had the correct connector on it (even though the LOT8 sled wasn't using it).

I put it in my TL2000 library, and initially the front panel showed the previous serial number and model number of the LTO5 drive. After around 5-10 minutes, it updated, and correctly showed the LTO8 drive and serial number.
I have yet to run any tapes through it, but so far, the library is happy with it.
 
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