Backup Exec 12; Jobs over tape capacity failing with tape loader

Hi All,

Got a strange issue with one of our SuperLoaders out in one of our Middle-East offices.

Server is a HP ML370 G4 with a LSi 20320-R PCi SCSI Card. Tape Library is a Quantum SuperLoader 3 using a Quantum LTO3 HH Tape drive combined with IBM LTO3 Media.

We have issues where regardless of the media (LTO2/3) or if the tape is New/Old; The backup will fail at the point where the tape is full and it needs to swap and continue on another tape.

At this point the job fails and gives the following error:

e00084ec - A tape read/write error has occurred.  This is usually caused by dirty read/write heads in the tape drive.  Clean the tape drive, and then try the job again

At this point; BE initiates a clean and then is ready for another job. If you retry the job it fails at the same point; give or take a few bytes.

I've tried a different SCSI Card; SCSI Card in a different port; Different SCSI ID; SCSI Cable; Tapes; All the firmware you can shake a stick at; etc; nothing makes a difference.

Dont know if this means anything; but even NTBackup fails to see the SuperLoader.

I should mention that this setup (Server, SCSI Card, SuperLoader) works on other sites; just this one.

The man from Quantum says that he cant see the command in the log files to initiate a tape change; so opened a call with Symantec who had a look; scratched their heads then found that NTBackup cant see the drive so could not assist any further until the drive could be seen...

I've got a call in with Quantum to replace the SuperLoader which they will do; but a part of me isnt convinced this will solve the issue.

Does anyone have any other suggestions I can try?

TIA.