[Info-vax] DAT drive misreads write protect tab

[glen herrmannsfeldt]

Rich Jordan <jordan at ccs4vms.com> wrote:

(snip)

>     I looked at a TLZ07 here and it is a small spring loaded plastic
> rod that sticks up; when the tape is loaded it hits the hole in the
> bottom of the cartridge.  If write enabled it is blocked, if write
> protected it can slide up into the cavity; the visible white tab over
> the side hole is for human consumption only apparently.

>     Given that (and the high likelihood a TLZ10 is the same) then the
> switch itself is probably malfing, not just a physical jam which would
> tend to default to a write-enabled state instead of write protected.

Quick and cheap solution, if you can get to the switch, is to bypass it.

Best is to put a little switch on the outside of the box.

Often switches like that are at the end of a tiny little two-wire
cable plugged in somewhere.

-- glen