Chromatography Forum

Hi All,
I got this symptom as follow,
two weeks ago, chemsation told me "Limits fail: pump oil(days), tune time(hours)"
So I check it was diffusion pump fluids lower than minimum level and I replace with new fluid to required level.
However when I pumped down and try to tune the MS, it told me as:
Error 4: Difficulty in Mass Filter electronics.
I never touch the quadruple.
the vacuum for diffusion pump is 4.5e-5 and is ok.
I cleanup the quadrpole contact with no luck.
Then I called agilent and they suggested may the board(side and/or main board) fault.
Please offer me suggestion how the problem result from.
Thanks in advance.

Acetone.

You don't have to touch the quadropole for this one. I have had the RF circutry go out on an 5972 - this was some years ago. It just quit. Unfortunately as instruments age, parts will fail.

I assume that you have tried the ususal: cycle power on PC and instrument...

If boards and connectors are seated properly the number of possibilities is limited.

If the Agilent service engineer did not give you some things to try, I would suggest you invite him/her in for a visit. Plan on replacing a board.

... chemsation told me "Limits fail: pump oil(days), tune time(hours)"
.

Acetone,

As far as I know what you got 2 weeks ago is an automated message to remind you to check the oil level of the foreline pump and that the time set (by you) between the autotunes is expired.

Probably you will have to vent and recheck if every connection is ok (as Don suggested).

Good luck.

bhuvfe

As they said, this may be a time when you want to have a service person come in. Could be quite a few things.

One thing that may seem a bit dumb but could be the problem: make sure the ribbon cable is completely plugged in. If the connection isn't right the MS will throw up all kinds of crazy, scary error messages. Just unplug it, then recenter it and plug it back in. Run your finger firmly across to make sure it is uniformly attached.

Also, 4.5 x 10-5 is just a tad higher than I would expect. If you are able to fix the electronics problem and discover that you have a leak I would first check the seal of your diff pump.

I had a similar problem a few years ago. Turned out to be a bad seal on the turbopump.

What is the scan range? Try reducing the scan range down to about 10 to 550 AMU. I have an old 5972 that will only scan up to about 600amu. The tune macros will scan far beyond that sometimes while tuning. But I can still tweak it manually.

Often when you remove the quads, it's difficult to reinstall them just right. You might check the rfpa and see what kind of voltage you're getting. Or you might have to reseat the quad.

On above post. And if you have not removed the quads - don't. That is one for Agilent service - sometimes it is worth the money to let them do it. And, I come from a shop that did not like to hear from us - if it was easy, we just fixed it. And for us, there were a lot of things that we considered easy that others did not. The service guys got the calls when it got hard...

My service engineer found that there are two patch if scratches on the surface of two rods of Quadrupole. The scratches are so small and they lead to the system fails?? The guy said there are some coatings on the surface of rods. if the coatings falls off then RF wont work. Does this make sense?