[AV Media Matters] Anyone with AIT failures skills?

[rohre@ARLUT.UTEXAS.EDU]

I would appreciate knowing of anyone who does analysis of AIT drive
failures independent of Sony.  They have not provided adequate
customer feedback of problems found, if any, when a couple ofs drive
were sent in for evaluation.

We have a customer who uses the AIT drives aboard ship.  We do the
installation and check out of a computer system which uses this
drive for archiving data, but then the customer crew uses the device
at sea.  They are reporting on more than one drive that it takes 5
minutes to load a tape, and then they could not transfer data to it.

The drives performed normally, when sent to manufacturer, we were
told.

We have the same tapes and drives aboard other ships of the
customer, and they are not having problems.  Of course, we are
considering there could be a power bus noise or signal interference
with the drive's proper operation, but outwardly, this ship is just
like the ship with normal operation.  It is believed the operating
humidity and environment is within nominal limits for this
application.

Thanks in advance for any experineces, sources of help, or advice,

Stuart Rohre
ES Lab Applied Research Laboratories, Univ. of Tx., Austin