Chromatography Forum

Our empower 3 software shows an error message when we log into our account. if we do "run sample" or other operation like "browse project", It shows "fatal error, empower will exit". I tried to restart the computer, but it still shows this error message. Anyone knows how to solve this problem? Thanks.

Assuming that this is on a fat client or LACE, check your windows event logs (application & system).

Also make CERTAIN that any antivirus software is leaving :\Empower\* untouched.

For more information, let us know what build you're running, whether it's a lone client, workgroup or client/server (enterprise) setup and what OS your PC is running.

You might also want to "Verify Files" and make sure that the resulting checksum file has nothing but zeros after each instance of the words "missing files".

DR wrote:
Assuming that this is on a fat client or LACE, check your windows event logs (application & system).

Also make CERTAIN that any antivirus software is leaving :\Empower\* untouched.

For more information, let us know what build you're running, whether it's a lone client, workgroup or client/server (enterprise) setup and what OS your PC is running.

You might also want to "Verify Files" and make sure that the resulting checksum file has nothing but zeros after each instance of the words "missing files".

Hi DR:

thanks for your reply.

our software is running under window 7 and the computer is connect with the waters HPLC directly. The system was running fine for more than one year and in a sudden, one day it shows this error message and we could not do anything.

my understanding is that there is no antivirus running on this computer (anyway, we did not connect it to the internet).

BTW, how do you "verify Files"? I do not know how to do that.

any other comments or suggestion will be highly appreciated

Is this an enterprise setup or a fat client hooked directly to a LC?

Also, is the LC on an ethernet cable (LAN cable), or IEEE (fat cable, huge connectors)?

Verify Files should be under "Empower" among your programs. It will open a command window, check a bunch of stuff and leave you looking at a checksum.txt file. That file is what you search for the word "missing", see that there are no missing files in a section, repeat (just keep whacking F3 w/ the "find" window dialog open.

If it's an ethernet instrument, you should also open a command window and run ipconfig /all

Make sure that your instrument LAN connector's IP address in NOT 169.254.x.x
If it is, there are some NETSH commands that can fix that, but this gets more involved.

Have you contacted Waters about any of this?

DR wrote:
Is this an enterprise setup or a fat client hooked directly to a LC?

Also, is the LC on an ethernet cable (LAN cable), or IEEE (fat cable, huge connectors)?

Verify Files should be under "Empower" among your programs. It will open a command window, check a bunch of stuff and leave you looking at a checksum.txt file. That file is what you search for the word "missing", see that there are no missing files in a section, repeat (just keep whacking F3 w/ the "find" window dialog open.

If it's an ethernet instrument, you should also open a command window and run ipconfig /all

Make sure that your instrument LAN connector's IP address in NOT 169.254.x.x
If it is, there are some NETSH commands that can fix that, but this gets more involved.

Have you contacted Waters about any of this?

Dear Dr.

thanks for your reply!

the computer is hooked up with LC directly through IEEE. I found the checksum.txt file under empower folder, and it was generated on the day when the software stopped working. I searched for the word "missing" as you suggested, and found one section showed 1 file missing.

the section was :
C:\empower\instruments\bin\directory,
33 files to check,
33 files, 9161216 bytes total,
0 file found changed,
1 file(s) missing.

I am not sure how to check the instrument LAN connector's IP address, I will appreciate if you can show me how to check.

The whole set system was purchased from a second-hand instrument vendor, and the vendor has no idea about this kind of issue. We contacted Waters, but they are not willing to support on this issue, they just asked us to purchase a new set of software.

your help are highly appreciated.

That missing file could be a problem.
You might want to try a restoration point on a LACE prior to the trouble (if this will not cause even more trouble w/ security settings). Reinstalling Empower on one may also be a good thing to try.

If all LCs are on IEEE, you need not worry about instrument LAN settings.

While it is unfortunate that Waters tends to turn their back to anyone who did not buy Empower directly from them (which is the only way to do it if you abide by the EULA), if you know a field service engineer, or have one in to do some other work, they may be able and willing to assist w/ the connectivity issue.

Good luck -

DR wrote:
That missing file could be a problem.
You might want to try a restoration point on a LACE prior to the trouble (if this will not cause even more trouble w/ security settings). Reinstalling Empower on one may also be a good thing to try.

If all LCs are on IEEE, you need not worry about instrument LAN settings.

While it is unfortunate that Waters tends to turn their back to anyone who did not buy Empower directly from them (which is the only way to do it if you abide by the EULA), if you know a field service engineer, or have one in to do some other work, they may be able and willing to assist w/ the connectivity issue.

Good luck -

Dear Dr.

thanks for your reply.

How to do restoration on a LACE? I knew for windows one can do the restoration to a prior time point, but I do not know how to this restoration on a LACE. Your help is appreciated.

meanwhile, if I can find out which file is missing and copy it to the corresponding directory, will this resolve the problem? or have to re-install the software in order to make the software work?

Best

You set a LACE to a restore point the same way as you would any other Windows PC.

Finding that missing file is probably not adequate, if a restore point doesn't get it done, an Empower reinstallation may be in order (or at least worth trying on one LACE).