1050 system insisting it can't find instruments

[aecorwin]

OK, first of all...the lab I work at is already in the process of attempting to procure a more up-to-date HPLC system, so this question is mainly just being posted because (as an engineer) it bugs the heck out of me when I can't seem to find what is causing a problem. That said, the problem in question is that one day a few weeks ago, seemingly out of nowhere, we started getting "PMP not found! ALS not found! VWD not found! FLD not found!" messages upon launching Chemstation. Then, when Chemstation finishes loading all the "instrument actuals" boxes read "Pow. Fail", despite all of the instruments appearing to be powered up just fine. I don't actually think anything is wrong with the 1050 pump, 1050 autosampler, 1050 VWD or 1046 FLD...it's just that for whatever reason the computer doesn't seem to be able to find them. For the record, the computer is a very old Dell something-or-other running Windows 2000, and I am more or less sure that it just uses a "straight" HPIB/GPIB interface to communicate with the HPLC instruments (i.e., no LAN or USB or anything like that..this is all hardware from circa 1999).

I've since done a whole slew of things to try and track down the problem, including spending an inordinate amount of time making sure all the cables in the back (which appear to be standard HP HPIB cables) are securely connected and have no broken pins, etc. Everything checks out there. I have also opened the PC and examined the HP-IB card (an 82341-D, PNP version so there are no DIP switches) and found nothing amiss, and replaced a fuse in the fluorescence detector that was reading 3.5 ohms instead of a short. Still nothing.

On the software side, one odd thing I noticed was that Windows was showing a yellow question mark over the HPIB card, which made it look as if a driver had disappeared. I ran IOCONFIG and found that there were no cards configured at all! I was able to add the HPIB card via the HP IOCONFIG program, following instructions in the chemstation manual to make sure I had the proper bus address (30) and whatnot, but even after this (following a reboot and power-cycling of all devices) there was no difference in Chemstation. It still couldn't find any of the devices. Finally, I tried a clean reinstall of chemstation from the CD (version A.06.03), including a reinstall of the I/O libraries...and when THAT did nothing, I came back to my computer and started typing this message.

...so basically I am just wondering if I am missing something completely obvious or whether this really is one of those errors where it's really (especially considering we're looking to replace the system anyway) not worth spending any more time or energy trying to track down the problem. It's just extremely bizarre that NOTHING I have done, with either the hardware or the software, has led to any difference in the behavior of the system. I have done a lot of troubleshooting and this is the first time in recent memory nothing I've done has had ANY effect, for better or worse, on the problem, so if anyone has seen a similar error I would be very curious to know what the source was.

[ScottHorn]

I don't know anything about the specifics of that particular HPLC system, but from your description I would suspect that the HP-IP interface card itself has some sort of problem. Integrated circuits last a long time, but they do wear out, and you usually can't tell by looking. I would also try removing the card and re-seating it in the slot, or a different slot if possible (PCI or ISA if you're talking 1999). I've also resorted to completely re-installing windows before out of frustration. Sometimes it works.

[Sallybeetle]

I agree with the above answer to your question, but I have had a similar situation where one of the cables in the daisy chain went bad.

[Ikrion]

We're still running 4 1050 systems. I would say it's the card. We had to replace a few with the PCI version, but the exact number escapes me. You'd have to look at the ChemStation compatability matrix to see if the new PCI cards are compatibilit with the A.06.XX version you're running. The fact that the exclamation point came up makes it sound like the card went.

We've noticed that if you move the computer around a lot, etc, it puts a large amount of strain on the interface port on the computer and they eventually seems to break.

Good luck! The 1050 was a solid machine, so it would be sad to see it go over just a card.