FYI: You can speak with Brian from Exabyte support. We had similar issues including a bad unit (exact model you have). Found in this forum where another user with similar issues installed brand new tapes and had initial success with the unit running once. Then there were no other support entires showing problem resolution. In speaking with Brian, you have to wipe out the initial Write/Read blocks on both sides of the bus (in the tape drive and in the cue for 10d). It all flows back to the initial test data block being sent/retrieved to the drive for each tape inventory. As the write would happen, the bad data block corrupts the initial read stripe on the tape. When the unit finishes that tape test and attempts to read this bad block it can not because its sees bad blocks, and then hangs waiting to find a good block (which it won't get). Use the VXA diagnostic utilities to wipe the bad block in the buffer, do the same on the software side of the bus, and the drive will hum.
Brian stated that this information is not fully diseminated to the rest of the support staff, and as such it might be difficult finding the resolution.
