🚀 go-pugleaf

I've been having problems getting a complete backup for a couple 
months now.  I'm running the NTBACKUP utility that ships with Windows 
NT Workstation 3.51 on the following hardware configuration:
   Dell OptiPlex XMT/590
   Adaptec 2940W SCSI card (factory default settings)
   Toshiba XM3501 CDROM drive (internal, not terminated)
   Exabyte 4200c DAT drive (internat, terminated)

The SCSI chain looks like this:
   <term>  Adaptec  <-->  Toshiba  <-->  Exabyte  <term>

The specific error message returned (in a dialog box) is:
   "Tape Drive Error"
   "The tape device reported an error on a request to write"
   "data to tape."
   "Error reported:"
   "Timeout before function completed."

Also, the following error is entered in the NT Event Log:
   "Source:  aic78xx"
   "The device, \Device\ScsiPort2, did not respond within"
   "the timeout period."

I've tried just about every possible combination without success.  
Suspicious of the NT shell preview technology, I even tried removing 
that, but it didn't help -- the error still persists.  I tried to 
determine where in the backup it was failing, but it's always 
different files and different # of MB's into the backup.  Even tried 
various tapes with no luck.

I've checked through all the Microsoft KnowledgeBase articles I can 
find, but have failed to find any concrete references to this 
problem.  I'm now out of options (save returning the hardware), so 
I'd really appreciate any suggestions you might have to offer.

One thing of note, I've read that MS has deemed NT to be somewhat 
sensitive to SCSI cabling, especially regarding active vs. passive 
termination.  Currently, all my devices are connected via a single 
internal ribbon cable of unknown quality, and both ends are passively 
terminated (I'm assuming that the AHA-2940W is passively terminated 
on-board -- please correct me if I'm wrong there!)

If better quality internal cable and/or active termination on an 
internal cable is a suggestion, I'd also appreciate pointers to 
companies (and even part names/numbers).  At this point, I'm a little 
leary of spending even more money on hardware that 'might' fix the 
problem.

Thanks,

------------------
Stephen Keeler
On-Line Systems