I'm running Varian MS Workstation 6.9, service pack 1. I'll re-post with the instrument serial number when I get to work later today. I know it's one of the "2000 and higher" serial numbers. *EDIT - Serial Number 03398.*
I don't have a turbo temperature stat when I click on the turbo picture, only statistics start date (10 May 2006), number of hours on the turbo (11300), number of starts (63), last spin up time to 90% (6.28 min), and current speed (97%).
I'm in the US.
Am I seeing issues? Good question. One of my favorite quotes comes from former US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, where he stated "There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don't know we don't know." I think I fall into the "known unknowns" and possibly the "unknown unknowns" category.
I have an inkling that I'm not getting the best performance from this instrument, but that stems mainly from not being able to reproduce a particular application note from Varian (direct injection of carbamate pesticides), difficulties in achieving the reserpine S/N specs (not sure if I'm using the right concentration or instrument settings or procedure, having never actually seen it done by anyone), and a problem that occurred the one time we tried to use the APCI source, where we zeroed the corona needle current via the procedure described in the APCI manual, but then we were not able to set the corona current to a desired setpoint - it would jump to a different value, usually higher. After re-installing the ESI source, I got arcing from the needle to the shield area, and ever since my needle optimizes somewhere around 1000-2500V depending on my conditions. Could there be some sort of problem with the voltage being delivered to the needle, and if so, is there a way to fix this?
Other symptoms of less-than-optimal performance are that the turbo occasionally drops out to about 93-95%, for reasons unknown to me. I've contacted Agilent, and they have nothing for me on this instrument except for the few manuals that they still carry on their website. They have a part number for an OQ/PQ for the 1200L, and I inquired about it, but was told that it is a service they do not in fact offer. If the turbo is overheating, is there a remedy for this, or is there a way to cool it externally, or is there some sort of cooling fan on the instrument that acts to help dissipate heat?
Also, when I tune the instrument, I don't get any errors, but I need to use a higher flow rate in negative than in positive (20uL/min versus 10) in order to get enough signal for the high masses, and I'm not sure if I'm getting reasonable tuning results (right abundances/ratios of masses?). In fact, last time I tuned I decided to create a custom tune profile using PPG, and I re-optimized my capillary voltages for each tune mass, and got different optimized capillary voltages than what is found in the Autotune profile for masses 59 and 442.3 (145 versus 100 for 59, 50 versus 30 for 442.3) in positive mode, and IIRC the needle voltage optimized around 2500-3500V, not the 5000V that the Autotune is set for. Were there any specs available from Varian regarding tune mass abundance targets, or ratios of one mass to another?