Chromatography Forum

I have 4 Aglient instruments (2 6890N and 2 6890 with JetDirect using cross-over cables) that suddenly won't speak to the ChemStation software.
They are connected to the corporate network to share resources so they are running with 2 NICs. The PCI NIC is configured for the corporate LAN using DHCP and the onboard is configured for the instrument using static IP address (ie 10.1.1.100, subnet 255.255.255.0).They all failed within one day of each other after working for 4 months straight.
I have confirmed the Insturment NIC is first in order for Adapters and Bindings. I can ping each NIC and get a reply. I have reconfigured the BOOTP/CAGBoot for the instruments with JetDirect and reconfigured the Configuration Editor for the 6890N's.
When the Chemstation software loads, i get an error msg: "#83: Error 83". When I click okay, i get another error: "Database Operation Failed". When i click okay, I get another error: "Channel.cpp". When I click okay, Chemstation closes.
I have switched the NICS so the onboard goes to the corporate and the PCI goes to the instrument and then checked the bindings order again. I have even put in a new NIC with no success.
I have reinstalled the Chemstation software, but I am still unable to launch the software (same error messages). I can hear the instrument make communication as the autosampler initiates, but after that I get the #83 error message.
I have searched the logs, events, but cannot find any evidence of system changes.
I have reimaged one to get it work, so I know all aspects of the software and hardware are functional. I just appears that something has changed and a reinstall just doesn't clear the problem.

Has anyone ever encountered this or have any advice to offer?

Which version of Chemstation, and which OS?
When I had an old 6890A, converted to 6890N upgraded to EA02.02 had a somewhat similar problem but it was there from day 1. Chemstation E versions include a instrument control log file which may tell you what was happening when the loading failed.
Otherwise Agilent may be the only recourse on what error#83 means.

I have had problems in the distant past with 6890N running D 01.01 that had issues after Win2K updates but those are long gone.

Thanks for the reply! I'm sorry for leaving this critical information out.
My OS is WinXP spk3, Chemstation D01.02 verD on one pc, and B.02.01 Sr1 on another.
A message was left with Agilent a couple weeks ago by my colleague but he didn't get a reply.

So you are running GCMS and GC ChemStation? The latest GC ChemStation from Agilent is C.01.05. The latest GCMS is (I believe) D.02.01. Best to select Help > About and post the revision and build number for each. The build number is in [brackets].

I've seen corporate IT push settings that close ports or disable some types of communication. If using BootP server, you can check the logs. If BootP service, enable logging, then power cycle the GC and check the logs. Check your anti-virus logs to see if a dll was blocked.

Under the Agilent program group, run the Installation Qualification Report to see if there are missing or changed files.

Isolate one of the systems, get a new ethernet cable and directly connect it to a known good PC. Once that is working add the router to verify it works, then reconnect the instruments dealing with whatever issues crop up.

I would do this testing with the 6890N so you dont have to mess with bootp / jetdirect card during the initial troubleshooting.

Pinging is rather low level communication, network-card-wise, even though you can ping it would be a good test to verify you can configure the instrument in chemstation and see the instrument's serial number.

My setup
The Chemstation workstation is joined to a windows 2008 domain and users log into the workstation with a domain account configured with local administrator rights.

When the Chemstation software loads, i get the following errors:

Database Operation Failed
Unspecified Error - then I would click OK

Then

error 46
channel.cpp - then I would click OK

#83: error 83

and

122
channel.cpp

When I click okay, Chemstation closes. So I found this article. When I read that a re-image helped, I decided to log with the network administrators account and try and run Chemstation. It worked fine. So, I deleted the local profile of the person having the problem. The next time they logged in XP recreated their local profile and Chemstation worked fine; therefore, the problem is somewhere in the user profile. This is why a reinstall of Chemstation did not work.

DO NOT deleted the profile if the profile in question is the local admin. I highly suggest that you create a new profile and use it if you have never deleted a profile before.

I hope this helps.