Chromatography Forum

Hi all -

Our Agilent 5975 system has suddenly refused to allow any vial number in a sequence other than vial 1. If we put any other vial number in the sequence, we get an error from "mstopcmd.dll" indicating "Vial number out of range". It will not allow the sequence to be closed or saved until we put 1 in for all vial numbers in the sequence. This happens when we bring up older sequences that were run with other vial numbers. Anyone know what's going on with this?

Thanks!!!!

just restart your computer

Have restarted computer, mass spec, and GC a number of times. Have disconnected autosampler tray and reconnected. Have "repaired" the Chemstation installation using the DVD. None of these have helped. I'm currently removing all of the Chemstation software and will re-install from scratch as this is the only thing Agilent was able to suggest. I guess I'll see if that does the trick.

For future reference, the fix ended up being related somehow to the change to the cool on-column injector, which is in the rear port. I re-loaded a method for the multi-mode injector, which is fitted in the front port. That one didn't seem to work well - it locked up during the method resolution process, but once I got through that, I could save a sequence with any vial number I wanted. I re-loaded the method for the rear injector and at that point, the sequence functions all worked again. Note that complete removal and re-installation of Chemstation did not fix the problem. The people I talked to at Agilent were also unable to offer assistance.

I had this happened on my 6890. I just physically unplug the auto sampler tray on the back of GC and put it back.

It works.

I had this happened on my 6890. I just physically unplug the auto sampler tray on the back of GC and put it back.

It works.

As mentioned, I tried that and in this particular case, it didn't work.

If the system can not resolve a problem with a mismatch on the injector it will give all kinds of problems. I had a method that would refuse to let me make a single run, but would allow to be run by a sequence. Somehow I had gotten in the method that it was using both front and rear injectors, even though there is no rear injection port installed and no autosamplers(unit uses a purge and trap). Once I remade the method from scratch all worked fine. The broken method would not even allow me to set it to front injection only as that section was grayed out because it knew there were no autosamplers, yet with the wrong information in there it could not function. Sometimes you just have to start from the default method and reprogram one to get it to work again.

I had this happened on my 6890. I just physically unplug the auto sampler tray on the back of GC and put it back.

It works.

Worked for me too.

I found this happened when the auto sampler tray lead was not plugged back in correctly and Chemstation can not run sequences without an auto sampler so by default it will only run vial 1.

Any other vial number without an auto sampler tray will cause this error.

It happens to me frequently when I switch the injector from the front to the back or vice versa. The solution is just to shut down and restart Chemstation.