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ERROR_ILLEGAL_ELEMENT_ADDRESS
The changer does not contain the addressed element.
ERROR_ILLEGAL_ELEMENT_ADDRESS is error 1162 (0x48A). A robotic media command specified an element address that is not valid for the selected changer and element type. The device is not saying that a valid slot is empty; it is saying the requested slot, drive, transport, or import/export element does not exist in its current geometry.
Common sources of a bad address
- software uses a human-facing slot number without applying the device's first-element offset
- an address from one library model is reused after hardware replacement
- element type is wrong even though the numeric address falls within another type's range
- a magazine configuration changes the number of available storage elements
- 32-bit/16-bit field conversion or an uninitialized structure corrupts the address
- cached changer parameters survive a reset or reconfiguration
Validate against device-reported geometry
Read the changer parameters and retain the first address and count for each supported element class. Validate requests as a pair of ELEMENT_TYPE and address; a numeric value alone is ambiguous. Also confirm whether the API expects zero-based logical numbering or the native element address returned by the device.
Information to log
- device path, vendor/model/firmware, and changer serial number
- requested element type and address in decimal and hexadecimal
- reported first address and element count for that type
- source and destination structures exactly as passed to the IOCTL
- inventory/configuration generation used to translate user slot names
When the request originates from a UI, log both the displayed slot label and translated hardware address. This exposes off-by-one errors without requiring an operator to understand the changer's native numbering.
Recovery
- reject the command before sending it again
- refresh changer parameters after hardware, magazine, or firmware changes
- rebuild the logical-to-physical mapping from current device information
- ask the scheduler to choose among addresses actually reported for the desired type
- run inventory only after the address map is known to be valid
A delay-based retry is inappropriate because an invalid address does not become legal with time. A retry is justified only after the configuration or mapping has been refreshed.
Developer safeguards
Represent element addresses with a type-safe structure rather than passing bare integers through several layers. Unit tests should cover first nonzero addresses, the final valid address, one value beyond the range, empty element classes, and hardware profiles with different magazine layouts.
Distinguishing nearby errors
ERROR_SOURCE_ELEMENT_EMPTY and ERROR_DESTINATION_ELEMENT_FULL both refer to valid elements whose occupancy is unsuitable. ERROR_MAGAZINE_NOT_PRESENT can refer to a configured element that is temporarily unavailable because its magazine is removed. Error 1162 indicates that the address itself is not part of the device's valid element map.
Example
A library reports storage elements beginning at address 1000. Management software labels them Slots 1–24 but mistakenly sends displayed value 24 as the native address. The changer returns 1162. Translating Slot 24 to address 1023 and validating it against the reported range fixes the request without any mechanical repair.
References
- Microsoft: System Error Codes (1000–1299)
- Microsoft: ELEMENT_TYPE enumeration
- Microsoft: CHANGER_READ_ELEMENT_STATUS structure
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