Chromatography Forum

Hi All

I'm having an ongoing start up problem with our Waters 2695 (RID) running Empower 2. I rarely shutdown the instrument because of this problem. When the system is initially booted up I am unable to configure the system... can’t get past the “Connecting to Empower Node ‘Empower’”. The about 10 minutes later I get the “BusLAC/E on node ‘Empower’ couldn’t be booted” notice and then "COM fatal error". When this happens, I try turning everything on and off several times (allowing the module to fully start up before the computer) but still no connection. Sadly the only solution I have is to leave the system for a day, and then it usually connects without issue. Has anyone else had this problem? Suggestions for a solution?

Thank you!

Make sure your BUS-LACE board is properly seated in its slot and that the cables are all nice and snug

Make sure your 2695 is set to Empower Control (in config options)

Check w/ your Waters rep to see that it is running current firmware

In general, a restart should go, from everything being off, turn on, in order:
IEEE instruments
LACE
Ethernet instruments
and you want to wait a bit between steps, letting everything initialize or fully boot before moving on.

If you want more specific advice, you will probably need to add more specifics (Empower service packs and feature releases installed, whether it is an enterprise, fat client or group installation, LACE OS info etc.).

just a thought, even it's not obviously related to a connection error but who knows...

how old are the batteries on the mainboard of your PC and 2695?
Normally Waters is changing the one on the 2695 once a year during regular maintenance.

Check out U.S. Electric if you need a new Waters BusLace card