IBM 4690 - Manual (Page 37)

Chapter 5. Maintenance and Troubleshooting
This chapter describes several maintenance and troubleshooting procedures for the
TR-4 EIDE Internal Tape Drive and the TR-4 SCSI Tape Drives.
Attention: To avoid electrical shock, unplug your store controller and all attached
devices from electrical outlets before performing any troubleshooting procedure.
Maintenance
You should perform minimal maintenance to ensure that your tape drive operates
in peak condition.
Caring for Tape Cartridges
The following points are guidelines for storing and using the cartridges:
v Do not open the tape access door of the cartridge or touch the tape itself.
v Keep cartridges away from sources of electromagnetic fields, such as telephones,
dictation equipment, mechanical or printing calculators, motors, and bulk
erasers. Do not place the cartridges on the store controller monitor or on the
base unit of the store controller.
v Keep cartridges away from direct sunlight and heat sources, such as radiators or
warm air ducts.
v Keep cartridges free of moisture. Do not wet or submerge cartridges in any
liquid.
v Do not expose cartridges to temperature extremes.
v Retension tape cartridges that have not been used for more than a month before
restoring or backing up data. Retensioning is the winding and rewinding of a
tape cartridge. This action restores the proper tape tension to the media. The
backup application software provides a function to retension a tape cartridge.
Cleaning the Tape Head
To properly maintain the drive, periodically clean the tape head. You do not need
to perform any other periodic maintenance. Clean the tape head with a dry-process
cleaning cartridge such as the Geneva DPCC-2000+. You can order a Geneva
DPCC-2000+ cleaning cartridge directly from Geneva by calling 1-800-358-3559 and
requesting part number GEN100-1 or by contacting your local Lexmark dealer.
The cleaning cartridge is good for 30 cleaning operations. Cleaning should be
performed once a week. The cleaning process is simple to use; insert the cleaning
cartridge into the tape drive, and the cleaning process is automatic. The entire
process only takes a few seconds and is completed when the drive’s activity light
stops flashing.
© Copyright IBM Corp. 1998 23