Chromatography Forum

Hi there,

We are running an HPLC with Waters Empower Pro 2, but the system stopped working properly and gives the error message 'Database Failure Storing Chromatogram' when preparing for an injection. Does anybody know what I can do to remedy this error?

The machine worked fine before this error occurred. All the software seems to be running fine and there is communication with the UV-detector and the flow regulator. When selecting a method and pressing the 'prepare injection' button, normally there will be several 'empty' chromatograms displayed (we monitor at different wavelengths). When pressing the 'inject' button, the monitoring will be begin with the chromatograms at set wavelengths as a result.
Now, however, when pressing the 'prepare injection' button nothing happens; no 'empty' chromatograms are displayed and instead the error message 'Database Failure Storing Chromatogram' appears in a line at the bottom of the Empower interface. The UV-detector and the communication with it are definitely working, because when selecting the 'monitor baseline' option I can see the output of the selected wavelengths.

I tried the help file and had a look on the internet, but could not find this error message or a solution for my problem. First thing I tried was to restart the whole system (including cutting off all power), but this does not help (tried it several times). I also tried deleting .dat files from the folders '' and '', as I thought the error might be related to a lack of storage space. This did not work either.

Can anybody help me out with this issue? Help will be much appreciated!
Cheers,

Tiddo.

Is table space in project adequate?
Deleting dat files - not good.
Are you using a PDA? Maybe your settings are leading to huge files?

Hi DR,

thank you for your reply.
* I do not know what 'table space in project' is, unfortunately, but did not change any setting. So that should not be the issue. The problem occurred between two injections; the first one worked just fine and with the second I got this error.
* Deleting the .dat files does not seem to have changed anything. I've stored them on a separate drive so they can be placed back if needed.
* I think we use a PDA (judging from what I found here http://www.waters.com/webassets/cms/sup ... 1503ra.pdf).
* I tried to prepare for an injection with a very undemanding method (following only one wavelength during 30 minutes) but that results in the same error message.

Other suggestions are more than welcome!

DR is almost certainly right.

Empower stores its data in a database, and the .dat files, are, I believe, the underlying data. You shouldn't ever have to think about this. You never archive those files or manipulate them in any way directly - Empower does it all, and if you want to archive, the archiving tool packages them all up.

When you create a new project, one of the things it asks you is how much space you intend to allocate to the new project. When you reach this limit, Empower will no longer store data, even if the hard disk is still 99% empty.

If you've deleted bits of the database manually, you may be in a bit of a mess. The thing to do is to archive the project if at all possible, using Empower's archiving tool, and then either clear it out, or make a new project based on the old (so you retain the methods etc.), allocating sufficient table-space that you can do a decent chunk of analysis before you have to archive and make yet another project.

Hi Imh and DR,

The issue is fixed now; it was indeed the 'table-space' (didn't know what that was at first).
I did not have admin rights to the empower software previously so couldn't see/manipulate that option; that login info left with a previous co-worker. Got the info now and can manipulate everything. Makes a huge difference...
Thanks again for your help,

cheers,

Tiddo.