I have a Sony LIB-162/A5 tape library (or autoloader -- I never did know the difference!) which is as per the original specs (i.e. running an SDX-1100 AIT5 tape drive). We have run it for a few years now, so it is no longer under warranty. I believe Sony have discontinued its AIT hardware line, anyway.
Over the past couple of months, whenever a cleaning tape is loaded, the error code 'F8' appears on the display and the device locks up. I find I need to manually perform a Move Tape operation to get the cleaning tape from the drive to the slot, otherwise any backup job will hold, waiting for the library to become available.
I have only been using Sony-branded media and cleaning tapes (p/n SDX5-CL) since we put the unit in and originally thought it might just have been a dodgy tape, but I have tried three brand new SDX5-CL tapes now and the same error occurs with each. We recently refreshed the actual tape media, too, and this has been fine.
A footnote in the user manual shows that 'F8' is the error code for incompatible data cartridges (p.103), e.g. using an AIT3 tape in an AIT2 drive, but it also shows the SDX5-CL as the valid cleaning media (p.13) for an AIT5 drive.
Is there some known issue with AIT cleaning tapes, that I should be aware of? How can I resolve this without going cap-in-hand for a new backup device?
