Chromatography Forum

Hey everyone,

Our lab recently got a Shimadzu system with the LCSolutions software they sell. Last night, it suddenly developed a heretofore unencountered problem: if I start the batch, it will run only one sample and then stop. The status will read "LC: Ready." The detector will continue detecting and it will show up on the screen for hours. In post-run, the data file will contain only the 35 minutes of data that the run is supposed to have. There is no error message and nothing in the log about this. If I start the batch at the next run, the same thing will happen.

Tech support at Shimadzu seems to have no idea what is going on and wants to send someone in to look at it but it will probaby be a couple of days. Meanwhile I am starting each injection manually and have to go home at some point tonight to sleep while my batch will be here with no one to hit the "batch start" button every 35 minutes.

In the manual, it says that if "Event In 3" under "system controller: configurations" in the method is set to "ready in" instead of "alarm in," the batch will stop after each injection. However, if I follow the instructions in the manual to check this, the buttons aren't there. "Configuration" is not under "system controller" in the method like the manual says, but rather "system controller" is under "system configuration" on the left nav bar, and it has many of the drop-down menus the manual shows but does NOT have the "event in 3" menu.

Does anyone have any idea what could be going on?

Thanks,
Chris

One other note -- it seems as if, when I press "batch start," after confirming to run my entire selection and beginning the first injection, nothing is being added to the batch queue.

Chris

Hi everyone,

I still have not been able to resolve this problem or get an answer from Shimadzu tech support.

I have some additional information:

When I start the batch, rather
than the blue line running down each file in the batch table as usually occurs, only the
first injection gets highlighted in blue. If I check the batch queue,
there is nothing in there. If I try to select "add to batch queue" it
gives me the following error in a window:

"17a8: Cannot save data on execution range."

Is anyone here familiar with the LSSolutions software who might have some idea what is going on?

Thanks,
Chris

Chris,
Do you have a Shimadzu call reference number?
I would like to try and resolve for you. I will send my email privately.
Regards~

Actually someone from Shimadzu came down today and it seems to have resolved on its own. Bizarre, considering I had replicated the problem over and over. He logged into the internet browser version of the system to make a batch before I had a chance to replicate the problem in his presence, so that may have confounded our ability to detemine exactly what fixed it, but it appears to be working now. Thanks for your offer to help!

Chris

I suspect that there was a configuration error in the CBM, and when the person logged on directly he (or she) fiixed the error, and after that the software could control things correctly. Was a service report provided so you could see what the problem was?

I was there with him when he came and neither of us knew what fixed it.

However, one thing that did occur: he was prompted to change the system configuration to eliminate the fluorescence detector from the method, apparently since the method was not using the fluorescence detector and I had turned the power off on it.

Originally I was using it to see if I'd get a signal and when I did not I turned it off in the method and turned the power off, without changing the system configuration for the method.

It did not make sense to him that this was the problem, because he said it should never have run an initial injection if it interpreted the sys config as wrong.

Until he came, I was never prompted to change the sys config.

Do you think this may have been the issue? Even though it was running a first injection every time I tried running a batch?

Thanks for your help,
Chris

(Just to clarify since my statements about whether I was there seemed to contradict each other -- he initially logged in while I was getting his parking pass and then I was with him for over an hour and we discussed the issue while we were together.)

Chris