No ion flow during detector gain calibration? Thermo MSQ
Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2014 8:32 pm
by glr123
Hi, we recently purchased a used Thermo MSQ. Everything has been going fairly smoothly during the setup, however I am not having an issue trying to get the instrument calibrated. When I try and run a detector gain calibration, there seems to be no ion flow to the detector. Any ideas on what I can check or what may be the problematic part?
Here is an image of the detector calibration process:
Thanks for the help!
Re: No ion flow during detector gain calibration? Thermo MSQ
Posted: Thu Mar 27, 2014 12:01 am
by glr123
For anyone else that may come across this issue, I was able to resolve the problem with the help of a thermo rep. The electron multiplier was not being started properly by the MSQ software. To fix this:
1) Open the registry by clicking start, going to 'Run' and typing "regedit"
2) Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Finnigan\Xcalibur\Devices\Surveyor MSQ\Settings
3) The 'DetectorVoltagestatus' needs to be changed from "FACTORY NOT SET" to "OK" - without the quotes - and the 'DetectorVoltage' needs to be set to a value other than zero. In this case, it was set to 1500.
4) Close out of the MSQ Tune program as well as Xcalibur
5) Hit the "RESET" button on the back of the MSQ
6) Start up Xcalibur and MSQ Tune
This should allow you to perform an Autotune with the CalMix solution. After the Autotune, I went back and did a Detector Gain Calibration to properly set the voltage, since the 1500 setting before was somewhat arbitrary. After I changed the Detector Gain, I performed a second Autotune.
Everything is now working smoothly!