Chromatography Forum

I'm having trouble with Thermo's Xcalibur software. Why would a raw data file which I can view and integrate in Qual Browser not be able to quantitate? Because of this one file, I cannot open the sequence in Quan Browser.

Also, periodically it has trouble saving raw data files. The sample analysis will run to completion, but the file size will be smaller than the rest in the sequence and is somehow corrupted. I haven't been able to identify a sequence of events that I could attribute as a root cause, and I wonder if anyone else has seen this problem?

I have had so many issues with Xcalibur in the past that I just export my Thermo data to .CDF. Go to "Tools" - "File Converter." I import them in to Chemstation and process here ("Import AIA"). I loose some File Info in the transfer but I keep a record of the sequence and file info with the final data. Of course this only works if you have MSDChemstation or another type of MS data software that can process .CDF files. I hear OpenChrom is close to having quantitation capabilities

Sorry to hear you are having issues. I hope you can find a solution.

Yes, that's kind of what I figured. I've thought about making a list of things that need changed in Xcalibur, but I don't really have the time. It helps to vent a little bit though, thanks!

(1) If you get one file that's messing up quantitative analysis in Xcalibur, you can of course save a copy of your sequence with this file's line deleted, and use this for processing.
(2) I used to get occasional corrupt files and an ever-increasing frequency of mysterious crashes until I got rid of the virus-checker. Xcalibur and virus-checkers really don't like to coexist on older PCs. Everything works beautifully when the instrument is installed, and then a few years later it all falls apart. Now my old PC lives happily in a time-warp and doesn't have any contact with the big bad, new, demanding world.
(3) Don't bother making a bug-list for Xcalibur. Thermo don't believe in the word "bug" (I believe they call bugs "deltas" or some other euphemism). My (limited) experience is that they don't listen. For example, I found that in the version of Xcalibur I have (I've checked this still applies to 1.3), if you use the MSn tab of the "Info Bar" on the left hand side of Qualbrowser to select spectra, if you have two spectrum panes open at the same time, the header of both will change on double-clicking a new spectrum in the InfoBar, but the spectrum will not. This means that you end up with the MS2 spectrum of precursor 313.2 labelled as MS2 of precursor 415.5, which is obviously completely wrong, and means that I was pasting incorrectly labelled (and misleading) spectra into client reports.

When I raised this with Thermo it took more than a month before the rep would admit that it happens. They then argued they couldn't really raise it with the programming team because they could only pass on a limited number of comments per month. Finally, after more pushing, they asked the US team, who replied that this was a known problem (feature!). But it wasn't a priority to fix, because those users who had come across the feature knew it existed and would therefore avoid it.

Conclusion: I should only report faults if I'm unaware of their existence.

I dearly love Xcalibur and find it a very useful and easy package, but I do wish Thermo would take a more proactive attitude to ironing out software glitches, and keeping us users informed of bits that don't work properly before we find out for ourselves.

lmh,

Version 2.0 is pretty "glitchy" as well. I don't use it for quant analysis but I do (have to) use it for sequence setup and qualitative analysis. I feel like I breathe wrong and the software closes. There is a horrible communication issue with Xcalibur to the DFS instrument (although this may be instrument related). I don't remember now, but there is a sequence of buttons in the Qual Browser that I will use often that will close the whole program without warning. One of the cell buttons followed by a double click in a spectrum window (I think) causes this. And as you said, Thermo knows about it and doesn't care. They just say "do it this way and that won't happen" and they expect you to remember that every time for every user. If there were people than just myself operating it I would have to write a "What NOT To Do" operating procedure for Xcalibur. Now I'm just venting frustrations. Like you said, other than very poor product support, the software isn't so bad. I do really like certain things about it. Some even more than Chemstation.

I just hope in the coming years that OpenChrom will blow them all out of the market. OpenChrom already has better support than any Thermo product I've used yet. And it's FREE!!!

lmh,

Version 2.0 is pretty "glitchy" as well. I don't use it for quant analysis but I do (have to) use it for sequence setup and qualitative analysis. I feel like I breathe wrong and the software closes. There is a horrible communication issue with Xcalibur to the DFS instrument (although this may be instrument related). I don't remember now, but there is a sequence of buttons in the Qual Browser that I will use often that will close the whole program without warning. One of the cell buttons followed by a double click in a spectrum window (I think) causes this. And as you said, Thermo knows about it and doesn't care. They just say "do it this way and that won't happen" and they expect you to remember that every time for every user. If there were people than just myself operating it I would have to write a "What NOT To Do" operating procedure for Xcalibur. Now I'm just venting frustrations. Like you said, other than very poor product support, the software isn't so bad. I do really like certain things about it. Some even more than Chemstation.

I just hope in the coming years that OpenChrom will blow them all out of the market. OpenChrom already has better support than any Thermo product I've used yet. And it's FREE!!!

Sorry, but the latest version of Xcalibur is 2.2! E. G. Qualbrowser ist now much more stable then before.

Klaus,

Thanks for the info. Looks like I need an update!