Re: 9347

[Larry Bolhuis <lbolhuis@xxxxxxxxxx>]

OK, there is SOME good news about the 9347, that is if Misery loves
company.  This same drive was sold by 3M, Data General, and DEC (and
likely others). So at least we aren't the only group cursed by the drive
we lovingly referred to as 'That piece of s*** in the white rack.'

I remember a CE busting that little plastic stick that held the cover
open on the thing. (and that after the drive had already caused a forced
powerdown of the system and we had manually rewound an entire 2400 ft
tape!) After breaking the stick, it hung down about 1/4" below the cover
so when the cover was closed it was under tension.  When latched back
into the 9309 rack the 'clunk' poped the strained cover. So we couldn't
use it because the top was open and couldn't get it out because the top
was open. We had to completely remove a 9332-400 from above the thing
just to push the top down to get it back out.  Needless to say that was
a long night.

The 9347 and 9348 are physically the same size but the '47 has a smoked
plastic front cover while the '48 has a white plastic cover (or black if
you got one of those rare -002 black models).  The '48 also has a set of
LED's and an LCD screen to give you clues on the tape position and
direction. The '47 told you nothing.  Also the '48 did 6250bpi, was
reliable (resonably) and can still be maintained.

 - Larry

> I had a (NEW) customer that discovered on December 27 that his 9347 was not
> working.  (They had been somewhat dilatory in the backup strategy over the
> last 5 years [*BRAINDEAD].)
> 
> IBM told they that they couldn't fix the 9347 any more.  When I pointed out
> to IBM that they were fully capable of collecting quarterly billing for
> this piece of equipment, they delivered a new 9348!  I did have to scream,
> very loudly very high up in IBM, and I got one day service.  On the other
> hand the customer did have an unmovable deadline that they were
> facing.  (Note the date referenced above, and remember what I said,
> [*BRAINDEAD].)
> 
-- 
Larry Bolhuis         |  
Arbor Solutions, Inc  |  IBM AS/400e - Get There First!
(616) 451-2500        |  
(616) 451-2571 -fax   |  It's 10PM.  Has your NT Server had it's
lbolhuis@arbsol.com   |  theraputic re-boot yet today?
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