Chromatography Forum

I am trying to get a 5890 Series II GC with Chemstation version B.04.02 with a PCI 82350B card to work on Windows XP. The GC will power on and everything fine but randomly the GC will power itself off (after several hours and even up to a few days) and then the screen will say "not ready." Has anybody else encountered this error before? I called Agilent tech support and they believe it has to do with Microsoft .NET framework 2.0. The latest release of Chemstation now installs .NET framework 3.5 with the needed service packs as well. I have used a different computer with the same version of Chemstation on two different GCs and have received the same error. Please help!!!! Any suggestions would be great!

Do you mean the GC powers off as in you have to use the power button on the GC to switch it back on?
If this is the case I don't think it is anything to do with with the data system (happy to be corrected) and is more likely a hardware problem with the GC itself.
If the GC is going to standby have you checked the system and sequence logs in ChemStation?

Mike

The Chemstation screen (online copy) shows GC power off/Not ready but if I close out of Chemstation then re-open it, the GC will work again. How do I check the system and sequence logs? I'll attached a screenshot of the error next time it occurs. Thanks for the help!

There are many possibilities, but here are a few things that I would initially check:

(1) Advanced Power Management (APM) Settings: Make sure you have all APM settings turned off on the computer and through the O/S (XP Pro). APM must not be used in a CDS. If it is active, then it will turn off the hard drive or other devices after a period of inactivity to save power. This will cause a loose of communication to the chromatograph and a "power failure" or not ready message.

(2) Noise: HPIB lines are known for their ability to pick up noise. Make sure all of your HPIB connections are secure and routed away from any AC lines or other sources of interference.

(3) AC Power Circuit/Supplies or Source for GC: Is the GC plugged into a reliable source of power ? Any small glitch or interruption can cause it to go off line.

Lastly: Look in the ChemStation INSTRUMENT LOG to see what if any errors have been generated. You may find a message in there which hints at why the system is shutting down.

To see the logs go to the 'View' drop down menu and select 'Logbook'.
You can view and print them out from there.

I just got the error again last night. I took screenshots of the error, is there any easy way to upload them to this thread? I looked under the "View" tab but did not see logbook. The chemstation version is B.04.02, maybe it was changed in this version? [/img]

I did find the INSTR1.LOG in the chemstation directory and after going through it it says "5890 I/O error with GC: Switch to offline." Any suggestions what this could mean?

"5890 I/O error with GC: Switch to offline." This simply means the computer (ChemStation) lost instrument control of the GC. IOW: Communication lost to the instrument. Check those HPIB cables and connections as I mentioned above. Make sure the HPIB card is correctly configured.

A quick comment since you mentioned that you are using the latest ChemStation rev. B.04.02. I would switch back to any ChemStation revision before B.04.02 as this new revision utilizes the RC.NET drivers and has proven to be loaded with bugs and problems. Agilent should have named this revision B.05.01, not B.04.02 as it was a major revision change from B.04.01. We strongly recommend running an earlier revision with your older GC system.

After switching the cables, I had good luck for about 3 days then the power off error again. I have tried using Chemstation B.03.02 and have received the same error as well, I'm thinking about making the jump to Vista and using the B.03.02 version. I currently have two other 5890 Series II GCs running on a Vista computer with a USB adapter and have had no problems whatsoever.