HP1100 LCMS won't start even though all lights are green

[soccerdad007]

Hi all
I am running a routine analysis for amino acids on a HP1100-ES-MSD system.
Software is B.01.03. Windows XP
I have run the analysis many times in the past without problems.

I set up the sequence, wait until I have green lights from everything and start the sequence. Everything seems to be going okay at the start. The MSD starts to initialize and I notice that the drying gas temperature drops a little (from around 350 to 340 or so but going back up to just over 350). At this point the MSD status panel displays a wait and then the binary pump, column thermostat etc display the infamous yellow abort bubble.The run stops and the wonderfully descript message "the sequence terminated due to an error" is displayed in the logbook.

I have tried using different methods and sequences but still the same problem. If I do a single injection, the software seems to continue thinking that the run is going as it remains blue but the time doesn't increment.

Does anyone has any ideas? I spoke to Agilent who suggested reset the MSD, doing a new sequence, method from the default but nothing worked. They also suggested that the temperature changes associated with the drying gas were normal as well

One final thought, our IT people have been doing some work in the last couple of months, forcing me to change the computer name of the LC-MSD computer. (No IP addresses were changed). Is there any chance that this could be the problem. I think it is unlikely as I noticed that someone had supposed used the LC-MSD since the IT folks did their stuff. As you can tell I am grasping at straws

Thanks in advance
Kevin

[bhuvfe]

Kevin,

Have you tried to run the HP1100 without the MS? Do you get the same error?

I had a similar problem on a system configured like yours (except for the MS). The solution was powering off the HP1100 and restarting the pc. After few attempts I could get a "green" status.

Regards,
bhuvfe

[bisnettrj2]

In the sequence parameters, do you have a Not Ready wait time set? For instance, if your Not Ready wait time is 0, then if any module (in this case, the MS) displays any sort of "Not Ready" signal, that might abort your run. Just a thought. I think the default is 10 minutes.

[soccerdad007]

Thanks for all the great advice. I tried some of it but solved the problem another way.


One of my colleagues had been using a iso pump connected to the end of the column (I think to improve the MS results ?) - He had removed it from the chemstation system configuration but still had the cable connected to the diode array and thus the chemstation. As a result I think the chemstation was still waiting for the isopump to be ready even though it wasn't really configured in the chemstation. As soon as I removed the cable from the isopump (has to be at the diode array side!!!) things worked okay. I did find if you removed the cable only at the isopump side the problem remained.

My colleague reminded me that we had seen this problem before so it seems reproducible and solvable in this way

- hope that this makes sense.
Anyone seen this one before?
Kevin

[lmh]

no, but thanks for posting it. Because in the next ten years, sooner or later it'll happen, and you've just saved me a lot of time when it does.