Frequently Asked Questions
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Q: What do the LED indicators on the DLT-V4 tape drive mean?

A: The four LEDs on the front of the drive light to indicate drive status. During normal operation, the Ready LED displays one of three states. The Ready LED acts independently of the other LEDs. The Fault, Clean, and Media LEDs work together to display the status of the tape drive.

Refer to the following two tables for more information.

Ready LED

Ready LED Information
State Description
Off No power to the tape drive.
On Power is on, no data cartridge is loaded or a loaded data cartridge is idle with no tape motion.
Blinking A data cartridge is in the process of loading or there is tape motion on a loaded data cartridge. Tape motion includes reading, writing, locating, rewinding, calibrating, and so on.

Fault, Clean, and Media LEDs

LED State Description
Fault LED Clean LED Media LED
NA Off Blinking-slow Unsupported format, unsupported data cartridge type, or damaged data cartridge.
NA NA On A DLT1 (DLT VS 80) formatted DLTtape IV data cartridge is loaded. Represents a read-only or VS160 formatted cartridge.
NA Blinking-slow Off Calibration error or permanent write/read error; cleaning suggested.
NA On NA Cleaning required - 250 tape motion hours exceeded since last cleaning.
NA Blinking-medium Off Cleaning in progress.
Blinking-slow NA NA User invoked write/read diagnostic failed.
Blinking-fast NA NA Servo or mechanical error.
On Off Off Internal firmware error.

Notes:

  • NA - Indicates that the status of this LED does not depend on the specific tape drive condition described.
  • Blinking-slow - LED lights approximately once per second.
  • Blinking-medium - LED lights approximately twice per second.
  • Blinking-fast - LED lights approximately three times per second.