TIC absence (Shimadzu IT-TOF)

[ATem]

Dear Colleagues!
Sorry for bothering. Maybe someone can help me. My Shimadzu IT-TOF doesn't show me any ion current. I don't know what it could be, there are no calibrant peaks and no any noise peaks from solvent. Fully absence of TIC...

[H.Thomas]

Valve switched to waste?

[Hollow]

blocked capillary/tubing?

[lmh]

Did you manage to solve this?

Blocked capillary (CDL) is definitely the first obvious possibility on an IT-ToF. Happens loads if someone forgot to turn the syringe off when they'd finished calibrating (the system won't tell you, and the calibrant, NaTFA, isn't volatile enough not to clog the curved desorbation line). Check the RP area vacuum, it should be higher than 50 I think; too good a vacuum means it's blocked (but it will usually tell you this).

[hcs]

Maybe some voltages of ion optics is missing. Use the service software of the MS, and the software in manual tuning mode to check if all the set voltage appears on the lens. I tried this and found problems. Shimadzu does not monitor all the set voltages. Agilent, Perkin Elmer does.

To the future: if communication whit the instrument lost, first change the CR2032 battery.