[Info-vax] DAT drive misreads write protect tab

[Rich Jordan]

On Oct 10, 2:01 pm, glen herrmannsfeldt <g... at ugcs.caltech.edu> wrote:
> Rich Jordan <jor... 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

Peering in through the load slot it actually looks more like it is
attached to the circuit board under the drive mechanism, but thats
just a guess.  There are visible contacts with the bezel removed (on
the TLZ07); perhaps finding the right pair and shorting them would
make the drive write-always.

But I think its easier to scrape up a replacement drive.