mt -erase hang

Hello, I am running Suse 7.0 with the 2.2.19 kernel, I am using a an Adaptec (7896 i think) SCSI driver with a Sony SDT-9000 DDS-3 DAT tape drive, with the aic7xxx.o module. Whenever I use most mt commands, i get no problem at all, and I can tar a file to the tape with no problem and retrieve it, but whenever I try to erase the tape with mt -erase, the tape drive light flashes, and then the command just hangs there, doing nothing. Does anyone have any ideas what might cause this? Thanks, Iain