Chromatography Forum

Trying to tune BFB on an Agilent MSD 5973. Will not tune and getting error message" cannot achieve constant peak widths"
Any idea what the issue maybe?

I had that message when I was recommissioning our 5973 - it turned out to be an air leak at the injection port. Have you done a leak check?

It can be helpful to watch the screen while running the tune. If you know what to expect with each screen it will make diagnosis of the problem easier.
I have had that error for something as simple as a bad tune file. The initial conditions were so far off that the optimization routine couldn't find the 502 peak. In that case I reloaded on old, good tune file and all went well. I have also seen that error when one of the wires in the ribbon cable was broken and the ion focus wasn't working.
Has the source been removed for cleaning recently? Think of partially disconnected wires, cracked repeller insulator, leak at the O-ring, etc.

As above watch the tune while it is in progress. You can get this error when there is very little abundance which is usually a minor problem such as dirty source or bad connections or even no PFTBA in the calibration vial. If you are seeing large peaks with widths over 1amu, then you have to begin to consider that there is a problem with the side board which has the quadrupole driver circuit on it, or contamination of the quads themselves.