Chromatography Forum

Hi!
I have a serious problem with the GC-MS. It is Thermo Finnigan Trace GC coupled with Polaris GCQ plus.
Last year we upgraded Xcalibur 1.2 to Xcalibur 1.4. Last Friday I tried to open tune window and there has been a message saying that control of the system has been lost would you like to restart? Also the Ion Source Temperature was 0 C.
I pressed ok and everything worked ok and Ion source reached again the temperature set point (200 C).
Last Monday when i opened Tune there was the same message again, but this time when i pressed ok to restart the system there was this message: "System Initialization Error! we had no control at all.
What is worst is that we found the chip that regulates communication between the MS and data system destroyed and the Transfer Line Heater and Temperature Sensor burnt.
The problem is we cannot where the problem starts. Is it the chip that is burnt (and why is this happening?) and then all the other problems follow. Or is the loss of communication between the data system and the ms that creates this or the Transfer Line. The main board is new so as the transfer line.
Thank you!

I think you've permanent problem in your hardware and lost communication then.
It's hard to believe that software fault can do that.

By the way, I'm looking for source assembly of PolarisQ. If some body has it for sale, let me know.

Thank you for answering! Do you mean computer hardware?

No, I mean you mass detector.
If you see a burnt chip, it's probably main problem. but, be aware of other source that can damage your new chip again. better to sent it for repair.

Thanks again!
We have already sent it for repair. I was wondering if someboby had a similar experience with the specific GC-MS in order to find what is causing this so next time we can prevent it. Cheers!