write retries exceeded with tc7000 & cipher M990--what does VMS do?

[ado at elsie.UUCP]

> . . .I have a VAX 11/750 running MORE/bsd 4.3 with an Emulex TC7000 controller
> (emulating a tm03/tu77) connected to a Cipher M990 tape drive.
> Everything works fine except when a bad tape causes a "write retries exceeded"
> error on the Cipher drive.  It seems as if in such cases there's no interrupt
> getting back to the VAX to tell it there's a problem and that the write should
> be aborted. . .

I talked with a technical type on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The Emulex person thinks it might be a (drum roll please) driver problem.

The theory is that VMS does the "right" thing--timing out if there's no response
from the drive after a decent interval.  If anyone knows whether this theory
is true, I'd appreciate hearing from you.

(But hey--the person at Emulex who's the authority on the TC7000 is said to be
out until March 23 getting some training, so the story may change soon.)
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