> I've seen this with a 3570B, the Cleaning Tape has had over 500(!) mounts,
> they've never changed it.
>
> Also, as far as I know the flashing frequence has something to say and also
> which indicators flash.
> If there's nothing wrong with cleaning please provide me with more
> information, I'll then look for the
> documentation of those flash's.

All told, I have 12 3570-C1A drives, 4 each in a pair of 3575-L12's and 2
each in a pair of 3570-C02's.  I run all of mine off of Solaris, so cannot
comment on what level of Atape you should be at, but if you are at
microcode level 411 or above (41A, or 424), then your drives are XL tape
capable, and perhaps your Atape driver is not.  I run my 3575's at PROM
level 2.19, 3570-C microcode level at 424, and IBMtape device driver at
the latest level (4.0.3.0).  I see my share of write errors, but many
times they are transient, and not really the tape.  A good cleaning may be
in order.  What are the SENSE Key/ASCQ/ASC values on the error message?

Also, how to interpert the flashing lights is on the Operator Guide.
Basically, all three lights flash together a few times.  Once they stop,
the error code follows.  Usually the top light (light 1) then goes on
solid.  You then need to count the total number of times lights 2 and 3
flash.  Once you get the counts, look it up in the table in the Operator
Guide.

The only way to clear the error is to power cycle the library.

Steve (unVMix Systems Programmer/Dude) Roder
(tkssteve AT ubvm.cc.buffalo DOT edu | tkssteve AT acsu.buffalo DOT edu | 
(716)645-3564 ,
   | http://ubvm.cc.buffalo.edu/~tkssteve)