HP 5890 GC-MS Error in SCCONT Routine (MSD 5970)

[LisaJacque]

Hi, all. I am working with a HP 5890 and receiving an error message. Upon sending method to system, system returns MS Error = 10 (which is "No emission Current" "Excessive Signal Noise") The acquisition log lists 3727 Error in SCCONT Routine. None of this means much to me - only been on GC-MS for a year w/ little theory training. I ran an autotune successfully after error message. The first time I got the error I retried a couple of times and the method ran. Now it is not. Anyone have any ideas of what the problem is or anything I can do to better diagnose it? Have a call in to service contract w/ Spectro.
Thanks,
Lisa

[MX304]

Hi, all. I am working with a HP 5890 and receiving an error message. Upon sending method to system, system returns MS Error = 10 (which is "No emission Current" "Excessive Signal Noise") The acquisition log lists 3727 Error in SCCONT Routine. None of this means much to me - only been on GC-MS for a year w/ little theory training. I ran an autotune successfully after error message. The first time I got the error I retried a couple of times and the method ran. Now it is not. Anyone have any ideas of what the problem is or anything I can do to better diagnose it? Have a call in to service contract w/ Spectro.
Thanks,
Lisa

The "No emission current" error usually means that you have a bad filament. Normally they are either working or not ,with no in between, so the fact you got it to tune after seeing that error is a little strange. I'm not overly familiar with the 5970 since the 5973 is the oldest I have personally worked with, but if it has a dual filament source, try switching to the opposite filament and see if the error goes away.

[LisaJacque]

Hi, all. I am working with a HP 5890 and receiving an error message. Upon sending method to system, system returns MS Error = 10 (which is "No emission Current" "Excessive Signal Noise") The acquisition log lists 3727 Error in SCCONT Routine. None of this means much to me - only been on GC-MS for a year w/ little theory training. I ran an autotune successfully after error message. The first time I got the error I retried a couple of times and the method ran. Now it is not. Anyone have any ideas of what the problem is or anything I can do to better diagnose it? Have a call in to service contract w/ Spectro.
Thanks,
Lisa

The "No emission current" error usually means that you have a bad filament. Normally they are either working or not ,with no in between, so the fact you got it to tune after seeing that error is a little strange. I'm not overly familiar with the 5970 since the 5973 is the oldest I have personally worked with, but if it has a dual filament source, try switching to the opposite filament and see if the error goes away.

Thanks for your response. I did try this but still receiving same error. As you say, a filament is either bad or good so I shouldn't be able to autotune w/ a bad one.
-Lisa

[lezotte]

If this is a 5970, it's at least 20 years old. The excessive signal noise indicates one of three things to me. The first is vacuum. Verify that the vacuum is in the mid to low 10-5 torr. The second is a dirty ion source. The final issue would be related to a board. We recently had to completely rebuild a 5971 with similar problems.

[Bigbear]

Be aware that on a 5970 the filament switch is on the outside of the unit. There is no way to toggle between filaments via software. As I remember it is at the lower rear of the analyzer assembly. You may not be able to see it if your unit is against a wall. You can feel it though, it's a toggle switch.

[mckrause]

1. No emission current - excessive signal: this error is usually generated when you attempt to scan and one or more masses saturate the detector. Drop your EM voltage to 1200 and try to scan again. This is NOT the same as a bad filament - what you'll get with a bad filament is essentially no signal at all - noise throughout the scan range, with nothing over about 100 counts. Typically it can indicate a vacuum issue, or you could have the EM set too high. There is no error checking for the filaments on the 5970 (filament driver, yes, but the filament itself, no).

2. MS error 10 is a latch-up error. That means that in order to clear it you need to flip the MS switch on the front of the 5970 off, wait about 30 seconds for the caps to discharge and then flip it back on - the MS switch, NOT THE LINE SWITCH. The line switch controls the pumping system - leave it on!! You then have to re-establish communication (click on the PROFILE button), and then run.

3. When in tune, try to avoid autotune if at all possible. Load manual tune, and then manually tune the system. I work exclusively in SIM (profile) mode to set peak widths, intensities, lenses, etc. and switch to scan mode only to check the final results.

[mckrause]

One additional thing I forgot to point out. If you have a quad driver issue you will get this error. Drop your scan range down 100 amu (10-700 instead of 10-800) and see if it goes away - if it does, you have a quad driver problem.