Chromatography Forum

Is it possible? Currently we are running an HP 5890 (Series II) with an HP 7673 Controller for our autosampler on a Compaq Pentium III running Windows 98, ChemStation A.08.03 [847]. Can we upgrade to a better computer/ newer ChemStation? I'm afraid this one is going to crash and burn soon and I don't want to lose the 5890. I'm no computer expert, so please provide me with any details, part numbers, vendors, etc. that you can.

I've tried asking our IT about it, they say it cannot be done. I trust them, mostly, just thought people here would know the GCs better.

Thanks!

-Greg

The primary limitation on getting new hardware, I would imagine, would be that you're probably using an HPIB interface card that uses an ISA slot to plug into the computer motherboard. If you're lacking the ChemStation installation CD that could be a problem as well, but the ISA slot is the main hurdle to overcome. You can find motherboard manufacturers who specialize in support of 'legacy' cards so you can find new computer systems that will come with an ISA slot. I don't have a good recommendation, however, as I have been getting by with a stockpile of Soyo mobos I picked up 5 years ago (only 1 left...).

I would suggest that you have your IT confirm that the issue is with the ISA slot interface card and have them search for a legacy ISA motherboard which includes Win98 drivers.

Edit: Actually, check that, buy one (or more) of these: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813136011

Regarding the software you are, I believe, restricted to Win98. I'm not entirely familiar with your Chemstation but if it's running VISA (little 'VISA' in the corner) I believe you should be able to use Win2000... but I think I'd stick with Win98 unless you want to use a corporate domain which is (from what I've been able to figure out) a lot simpler with Win2k. A Win98 box loaded up with RAM is fairly quick though, but I would suggest dumping the data in an Excel format to a network drive and doing all of your data processing on a WinXP workstation box (assuming you're using a LIMS of some sort).

Thanks for the quick reply!

ISA slot sounds familiar, I think that is what is the limiting factor...

You hit on one of the reasons I'd like to upgrade: networking. We seem to have a few leaks in our network that let viruses in (international company, Corp IT is in France) that attack older OS's (or is it OS'es?). To network the PC, we have to run XP or newer. I can probably convince "the powers that be" to buy a new license, newer ChemStation, whatever, if we can network the PC and backup the data.

I'll forward that link to my buddy in IT, see what he thinks.

End of day, surfing 'job-related' website, caught me at a good time.

You can access a corporate domain with a Win98 box, technically, though it is somewhat bothersome. Let me see... here is a copy of my guidance document (for myself, heh, changing our corporate domain to 'CORPDOMAIN'):

Connect Win98 to Network:
Open My Computer
Open Control Panel
Open Network
Add File and Print Sharing for Microsoft Networks
Click Identification Tab, input ‘CORPDOMAIN’ and Workstation ID
Select Client for Microsoft Networks
Click Properties
Enable Log on to Windows NT domain, ‘CORPDOMAIN’
Select File and Print Sharing for Microsoft Networks
Select Primary Login- Client for Microsoft Networks
Restart Computer and Log In using CORPDOMAIN network ID and password. You will now have access to the CORPDOMAIN
domain.

The only thing that is cumbersome is that you log into the corporate domain and then have to log in again as 'Administrator' on the box. Since most instrument boxes are on all of the time this is not that big of a deal. I would hope that your IT could firewall your instrument boxes off so that they are not exposed to viruses. Or you could set up your Win98 box on a LAN and drill to a shared folder on it from a corp'd computer.

PS: The rule that I've read is when you're intending to indicate the 'eses' sound you use an apostrophe. I was taught (I think) that an apostrophe indicates possession, but I think that is not always the case, or not entirely the case. So I think referring to Carl's and Chris's older OS's, for example, is correct. But I find myself in the case of acronyms dropping the apostrophe unless it indicates possession or where an apostrophe might confuse possession ('There are a lot of ROUSs in ALS's Everett laboratory', for example). There are not, from what I've been able to figure out, any hard rules for it though.

I've tried asking our IT about it, they say it cannot be done. I trust them, mostly, just thought people here would know the GCs better. Thanks!
-Greg

Horeseradish, I think your IT just doesn't want to touch it !!!! And I'm pretty weak, computerwise, type with two fingers, etc.

We currently have at least one 5890/7673 on a Pentium IV, with Windows 2000 platform. It uses ChemStation A.09.01, has a #82341 HPIB/GPIB circuit board in it to connect it to the 5890 GC. You can also use #82350 HPIB/GPIB circuit board but you set that up in the software as if it's an 82341 (don't know why, it's in the instructions). You manually configure the HPIB/GPIB to "hp82341" with lower case hp, and set the "bus address" (whatever that is) to 30.

I believe A.08 is modern enough to contain software to configure the 82341 board.

The older 82335 HPIB boards won't work and likely don't even fit into the older computers. I'm not sure Agilent ever "OK'd" Windows 98 for any of their Chemstations either. Your problem is how "new" of a revision to go to, newer ones were designed for Windows XP, and Agilent itself only sells the most recent version (however I was "told" that if you purchase an upgraded modern software from them (about $600), you could legally use any version "up to" that and they wouldn't care, but I'm no law expert.

Our other two operating 5890/7673 units are running on A.06.03 (Y2K upgrade software), one on Windows 95 for sure, the other might be on Windows 2000, I'd have to check.

I've tried asking our IT about it, they say it cannot be done. I trust them, mostly, just thought people here would know the GCs better. Thanks!
-Greg

Horeseradish, I think your IT just doesn't want to touch it !!!! And I'm pretty weak, computerwise, type with two fingers, etc.

We currently have at least one 5890/7673 on a Pentium IV, with Windows 2000 platform. It uses ChemStation A.09.01 has a #82341 HPIB/GPIB circuit board in it to connect it to the 5890 GC. You can also use #82350 HPIB/GPIB circuit board but you set that up in the software as if it's an 82341 (don't know why, it's in the instructions). You manually configure the HPIB/GPIB to "hp82341" with lower case hp, and set the "bus address" (whatever that is) to 30.

I believe A.08 is modern enough to contain software to configure the 82341 board.

The older 82335 HPIB boards won't work and likely don't even fit into the older computers. I'm not sure Agilent ever "OK'd" Windows 98 for any of their Chemstations either. Your problem is how "new" of a revision to go to, newer ones were designed for Windows XP, and Agilent itself only sells the most recent version (however I was "told" that if you purchase an upgraded modern software from them (about $600), you could legally use any version "up to" that and they wouldn't care, but I'm no law expert.

Our other two operating 5890/7673 units are running on A.06.03 (Y2K upgrade software), one on Windows 95 for sure, the other might be on Windows 2000, I'd have to check.

Reply from IT about the motherboard carl.nott linked to:

"It would work, but then I'd have to support every piece of that system for the rest of time. The goal is to have all of our PC under maintenance agreements so that parts and labor are built into their one time cost. If we started back to the special computer builds I can see it getting out of hand real quick. I'll make some calls today to some of my vendors and see if there's someone still making a PC with an ISA slot. Even if this is possible I'm sure the system would come with XP, Vista or even Windows 7. Is the software for that GC able to run on anything other than Win98?"

So I forward the question to you, can I run a 5890 with a computer that has XP, Vista, or 7? I really don't want to lose this GC, and I know they won't buy one to replace it when the PC finally dies; your help and expertise is greatly appreciated.

So I forward the question to you, can I run a 5890 with a computer that has XP, Vista, or 7?

Yes, I think so. Probably. We're running a 6890 GC with a 82341 HPIB card on a computer with XP with Chemstation A.09.03. I'm not 100% certain that there is not some strange reason why a 5890 series II would not work with this setup though.

I can't believe y'all have PCs with maintenance contracts in this economy. Yow. I might suggest that your IT contact these folks: http://www.adek.com/desktop-tower.html

My understanding is that the most current chipset that will support an ISA slot is a Pentium 4 chipset though, so although this will run XP no problem it's not a modern CPU.

Just recently at my job I upgraded chemstation to version B.03.02 and it is running a 5890 Series II GC with an autosampler. We went from an old computer with Windows 2000 to XP and it runs great. We have a PCI HPIB card that XP recognized and installed the drivers automatically and in the I/O config you have to tell it to use "hp82341" and everything else has worked fine.

There are many questions on this forum on 5890 Series II support with the latest versions of ChemStation. Although officially the 5890 Series II is no longer supported, it is still "unofficially" supported on the latest ChemStation B04.02 SP1. But the 5890 needs to be a series II.
Please contact your local Agilent representative on how to get the 5890 Series under the latest ChemStation version.

BTW, the 7890 is also a nice instrument

BTW, the 7890 is also a nice instrument

This is very true. Agilent has been very aggressive with their pricing lately too.

I just tried hooking a Vista computer to a 5890 Series 2 GC and it recognized it and worked properly, but when I open the offline copy I get an unhandled exception caught error. Has anybody else seen this, is it attributed to Vista?

I currently have the following configuration running on windows NT/Chemstation A.05.0x:

GC 5890 A series II
INJECTOR 18593B
AUTOSAMPLER 18596B
CONTROLLER(7373) 18594B

I would like to upgrade to windows XP in a new PC with ChemStation B04.02 and I have been told that I need to upgrade to a G1512A controller. I was told that I will need an APG remote cable (G1512-60530) and a USB-GPIB interphase G1680-63200.

Is this accurate?

We bought USB-GPIB converters from Agilent, we have not installed them yet, but they will allow us to get rid of our old Kayaks (HP computers) and upgrade our Chemstation up to at least B series.

We'll (Should) be able to drive old 5890's without having to use computers that include ISA connections...

Such converters were not that expensive... I don't recall exactly how much, just google "USB-GPIB converter Agilent".

We bought USB-GPIB converters from Agilent, we have not installed them yet, but they will allow us to get rid of our old Kayaks (HP computers) and upgrade our Chemstation up to at least B series.

We'll (Should) be able to drive old 5890's without having to use computers that include ISA connections...

Such converters were not that expensive... I don't recall exactly how much, just google "USB-GPIB converter Agilent".

Yep, I think those should work for 5890's. The problem is, I believe, with older mass specs that do not have the SmartCardII upgrade. My understanding is that a SmartCardI MS cannot interface with an I/O Libraries-type controller, so you're stuck with an 82335 ISA card. The autosampler controller boxes may (may) have a similar limitation... but I think we've swapped them between instruments enough that that would have popped up by now.