Everhart, Glenn From: bleau@umdsp.umd.edu Sent: Friday, May 29, 1998 6:21 PM To: Info-VAX@Mvb.Saic.Com Subject: Re: Why does Seagate ST19171N fail on INIT cmd? In article , Terry Kennedy writes: > > There's a number of problems here. First, the drive you got back probably >had the "write cache enable" bit set. VMS does *NOT* like seeing this, and >gives the "invalid mode sense" response. > > You can get a utility to change the WCE bit from: > > ftp://ftp.seagate.com/techsuppt/seagate_utils/aspiid15.zip Thanks! Others have mentioned this "feature" to me, but not the location - or existance - of the utility you mention. Until now the only utility I knew about was one on a Mac or PC (yuck!). This will at least allow me to leave the drive connected to my VMS system. > Second, you should not be dealing with a reseller unless they are providing >better service than the manufacturer (and it's obvious that they are not). [snip] Not to repeat myself, but at the time of purchase I believed the reseller *was* reputable. Once the drive was bought I can't transfer the warranty or service provisions to *another* reseller. I don't do any more business with them, btw, but please don't assume I can fortell the future at the time every purchase is made. I'm not *that* good :-) [snip] >Seagate's end-user warranty hotline is at 800-468-3472 >and operates something like 18 hours a day - you can call this number, find >out if your drive is in end-user warranty (you need the model number and >serial number), and obtain an RMA. Thanks for this phone #. I actually called Seagate on another problem a year or two ago, and they were not as cooperative as your reply suggests. I got a runaround, basicly, and a lot of finger pointing: "Our firmware works, it's not our fault," and, "We know of no problems with that model drive on that operating system." Meanwhile, the drive wouldn't work on our VMS system. DEC was no help, either. I finally found a solution through this newsgroup (hurray!), and it was a cross between DEC's driver and the drive's firmware. They *should* have known! Anyway, not to vent too much, that's why I didn't call Seagate directly. [snip] >I'd be very leery of sending a drive back to anyone but the manufacturer for >"service". I may be wrong on this, but I also seem to remember Seagate telling me they wouldn't service a drive under warranty directly, that I should go through the vendor. Maybe my memory's bad, maybe they've changed policy. Anyway, that's another reason I keep going back to the vendor. Anyway, the reseller has the drive now, along with a note in big letters saying CHANGE FIRMWARE REV TO 0023. If it still doesn't work when I get it back I'll use the utility you mentioned. If that fails, too, I'll be back for more advice; if it works, I'll report that, too. Have a good weekend, folks. Lawrence Bleau University of Maryland Physics Dept., Space Physics Group 301-405-6223 bleau@umdsp.umd.edu