Chromatography Forum

Hi!
My Waters 996 DAD does not pass internal tests - LED "status" blinks permanently. I have cheched lamp and cell, but could not solve this problem. Waters repare service is not available in my country, and our instrumentation engineer has no service manual or electric circuit diagrams for this device. I'm looking for this manual or for decoder of internal test results ( there are 3 red LED arrays on two boards inside, and not all of them are lights after initialization).

Did you check Waters website to download a manual?

Yes, but service manual is not available for users. I have operator's manual, but there is no any information about diagnostics, only simple solutions like check lamp, clear cell, ect.

Hi,
Have You run the diagnostics test from the run samples window? Have you heard clicks during startup? If not the shutter is broken.

Yes, shutter is working. I can hear clicks. We have no software for this device in the moment. It costs a lot, so I don't want to buy it until I will be sure that detector is in working conditions.

I called Waters and they did have service manuals and pocket service manuals in the past but they are no longer in stock. Their tech service did have the correlation for which red lights on the cpu board indicated which diagnostic test failed. They said that the most common failure was caused by not having liquid in the flow cell at startup.

You can probably call them to ask what your lights mean if that doesn't work.

Thank you very much for this information. I will try to connect with Waters technical support in my country, but I strongly suspect that they will recommended me to buy new Breeze or Aliance (approx. $150000-200 000 in Russia)

If you can tell me what lights on the board are lighting up I can ask them here.

Thank you very much once again ! On Monday I will make a new run and will record in details all signals, because they are changing during initialization.

There are two boards in the detector ( S/N WAT 057002 ) -CPU and ADC. On CPU board one LED array of 8 diodes is situated. They are marked as follows:

MSB 00000000 LSB ( 0- means one LED)
D3
12345678
Diode #3 lights continuously, #5 is blinking with frequency approx. 10 Hz, #8 is blinking with frequency approx. 1 Hz, other diodes are dark

On ACD board two LED array of 8 diodes are situated. They are marked as follows:

00000000 DS1

12345678

All diodes except #6 and #8 are lights continuously.

00000000 DS2

12345678

Diode #1 lights continuously, #2 is dark, #3-8 are blinking with high frequency, one can say they are shining continuously.

Shutter is clicking during initialization. D2 lamp is working. Then initialization finished LED "lamp" on the front panel light continuously, LED "status" is blinking.

try to make flushing for detector with water then with methanol .. also make sure that your lamp is okay (it must not exceed 1000 hr) , and make sure that no any leak at flow cell, and finally try to inspect the optics may be it cause this problem.

Step 1: Flush the cell with HPLC grade water
Step 2: How old is the lamp? Can you borrow another lamp just for testing?
Step 3: In the OPERATOR manual, go through all the various lit / or / not lit/ or flashing front two yellow LEDS, conditions.
If all of this is O.K. , you may have a bad mirror.
Good luck.

Thank you very much for advices. I have flushed the cell, but I have no spare lamp to test its intensity. Flushing was not effective. Now I'm trying to install Millenium software to test detector electronically. This detector was moved from closed laboratory without any documentation.

Under MILLENIUM, run the diagnostics test, and the calibration test [ for energy spectrum ]

OK, I will try. Thank you!