Chromatography Forum

Hi,

We have a Thermo Finnigan LCQdeca with Surveyor autosampler. However, the autosampler could not be initiated. It keeps showing two error messges: Error 537067527: Unable to find home fly when expected; Error 537067546: Mechanical failure detected. Meanwhile, the syringe driver makes a loud buzzing sound. I checked the needle assembly, transfer line and the injection valve, sample loop. I have made sure there is no blockage. So, is there possibly a defective limit switch? Or due to other reasons? If we want to replace that, anybody has more information about that item? Any suggestion will be greatly appreciated.

if there's no blockage, it is worth checking that the screw that drives the syringe plunger up and down is able to turn reasonably freely. It has a screw-driver slot on one end that you can use to check it turns. If you are lucky, you may have a simple fault like a dirty screw-thread making it too stiff for the drive system, but last time I had very loud noises from this unit, it was dead.

Thank you very much. I will check that. Just ordered the lead screw grease.

Thank you so much, Imh. That is the exact problem. After I cleaned and lubricated the lead screw on the syringe drive, there are no more error messages and loud buzzing sound now.

oooh, you've made me all happy! Glad it was something simple.
Li