Chromatography Forum

Hello,


I switch on the HPLC-UV (Perkin Elmer S200) but it seems like there is no any communication between software and hardware. 'DAD Unknown Instrument' appears as Status and the system is not allowing me to do anything, not even to detach the DAD (so I suppose that there is a communication problem between software and detector).

Moreover, the channel lights on the DAD are consistently off, a thing that I can not interpret (is any of the lamps that need to be replaced? is something wrong with the connection?).

So I am struggling to find a solution...

Have you experienced something similar? or do you have any idea about the channel lights being off?

I don't have any hands-on experience with that system, but if it were my problem, the first thing I would do (after the obvious shut-down and reboot of the system) is to check the cable(s); if it's a standard cable type, try swapping it with another.

That said, the fact that the controller recognizes that *something* is connected, plus the absence of lights suggests that there is some type of electronic failure in the detector itself. It's probably time for a service call, but if you are brave, you could open up the detector and look for some obvious problem (a loose internal connector maybe?).

Thank you, Tom, for the help. Problem solved finally, HPLC was not in use for some months and a reconfiguration of the DAD was needed.