terminology

[just me]

hello
When i infuse a solution of water, acetonitrile or methanol into the MS there are usually no peaks on the scan spectrum however when i try to capture the ms scan sometimes there is one significant peak showing up however if i had waiting for 1 second then that peak would have gone. What is the name for this phenomenon whereby blips are seem momentarily on the spectrum. Unfortunately i have just noticed that all my spectra from solutions which should contain nothing have one small but noticeable sharp peak in them at random masses. I do not want to redo the infusions so if anyone knows the name of this phenomenon then i could use it to explain these random peaks

[Kostas Petritis]

I guess you are referring to random noise or spikes? The best way to avoid it is to accumulate some spectra together (i.e. 10 or 100). The sum of the spectra shouldn't have those peaks if they are just random noise...