Chromatography Forum

While going through the topics I found many readers are using Agilent systems

Has any one faced an error called HPCORE ?

Why does it occur & how one can avoid it ?

Hi,

I have the same problem once in a while. Why, I do notknow. The only solution I found so far is to reboot the computer and restart Chemstation.

I think HPCORE is the process that keeps track of Chemstation. Whenever there's an issue between it and Windows (memory conflict, frozen aux. process ro whatever), that's the generic message for an unspecified error related to the process. As mentioned above, a hard boot of the PC (shut down, then power it back up) and powercycling the Agilent stack should fix it.

We get that sometimes as well. It gives us the option of Ignore or Close, but I don't think either helps too much. Turn off the computer, turn off all the Agilent modules, turn back on again. I wouldn't worry about it.

Hi All,
Sometime is enough if you kill the "ntvdm.exe" process in the windows task manager. If the firewall or a win update process closes the port what is using for TCPIP communication, a restart is needed.
I recommend kill the ntvdm, restart the ChemStation. if works, you win a couple of minutes. If not, lost a half ...and restart the computer.
This works only for A.xx.xx version (16-bit) CS.
ATH.

HPCore and I are long time friends.

I can't recall whether I first saw it on the 3365, but pretty much every subsequent Chemstation instrument I've used has produced it at some time. It appears to be more frequent on computers that are multitasking, such as having MS Office on them, and also computers on networks.

As far as I know, the only long term solution is a Chemstation ( and perhaps Windows ) reinstall for persistent invocations that are not covered in the SSB for the version you are using. On some older systems, adding more memeory could help reduce appearances.

You should visit the Agilent WWW site and check the Software Status Bulletin ( you will need your product code and serial number ) to see if probable causes are listed, along with the patches required to fix them.

A reasonable preventative measure is more frequent reboots ( daily/weekly ). I'm not a fan of selective Windows process culling.

I reboot the computer, restart the software, start the instrument, stop the instrument, close down the computer and instrument, wait a few minutes, and restart the whole system again before commencing work. It takes about 5 - 10 minutes extra, but I know that the last saved configuration was a functioning system.

Please keep having fun,

Bruce Hamilton

We have A.xx.xx version so I use NTVDM killing method. It works in 99 percent of all cases. My observation is that the problem is more frequent on newly installed PCs .
(Win NT, Win 2000, the newest SPack)

Thanks all

Yes, we also do killing of NDVTM & restart the PC method

Thanks for your reply

RRP

I have been seeing this since I started using Chemstation on NT4 many many years ago.

Called agilent and they told me it was due to disk fragmentation. ChemStation does not write files properly and tends to massively fragment them when writing the file. If too many fragments build up, the software throws a HPCORE.exe error.

Even from the days of NT4, it still continues to this day.

Reference: http://www.chem.agilent.com/en-US/Suppo ... 00196.aspx

Once the technical folks at Agilent told me that, I defragmented on a weekly basis and I never saw the error again.