Chromatography Forum

Hello,

My company has recently came in possession of this machine. The downfall, it has not been ran for over a year. With this there could be endless possibilities of malfunctions. So far, I have installed pure chromatograph grade helium and replaced the septums in the injectors. Not much done so far. When starting the machine and selecting a method, I get an error in the message log saying "Mass spec may need to be calibrated". So I go into the auto tuning page and run the autotune. Everything was passing until it came to the ion gauge test results.

The ion gauge test
failed (the ion gauge is not producing the proper emission current. Vacuum readings may be unstable or in error.)
Then onto the Vacuum test
failed (the turbo controller is reporting a speed of *d**. The controller may be defective.)

Once the vacuum test failed it was unable to run anymore tests until the problem is fixed.

What should be my next step? The worst case scenario I would be replacing the power board, but I am trying to run through everything else first. I am thinking the vacuum pump fluid needs to be replaced, I need to clean the Ion Trap, both filaments checked out OK, but thinking about replacing them anyways. Also, could having an old column produce these errors?

thanks!

Jake

It has been a long time since we had a 2000. But, does the turbo pump start up? Can you display the current draw for it? If I remember right it has place where you can see what the turbo is drawing.

Hi Steve,

Sorry for the late reply. But anyways the Turbo Speed is 100% along with a turbo current of 305mA. It does appear there is a problem present within the trap. I have a constant temperature of 24C and when I try to apply a new temperature it will not change.

Hi, you can bypass ion gauge and obtain vacuum ready condition. I didn't remember if your trap can heated if there's faulty condition on vacuum side.
If you open right side of ms you will find a board. Somewhere there is a jumper (indicated by IG). Put ms in service mode, change jumper position and restart. Now your ms can't look again for ion gauge. The turbo current is quite good, so i will expect a good vacuum. Try now to check if trap is heated or not. If not, check resistance of heater to find if it is open.
Good luck

daniele,

I replaced the manifold assembly for the Trap post. After I reinstalled I am still having the same issue. Trap heater maintaining around 50 C without budging. Manifold temp and transfer line temp both work perfectly. Any ideas?

Thanks,

Jake

Hi, did you check resistance of heater?
If it's ok I think there is something wrong on board.
Have you checked fan on rear side of mass spectrometer? If electronic fan fail, powerboard goes on hi temp condition and cut power to heater. Seems strange only for trap one... but try to look.
Good luck

Fan works. Check the resistance and it checked out good. I ran the trap heater on the diagnostics and it told me that the Trap is receiving no power. Reasons: 1) open trap, 2 and 3 have to do with the boards. I’m really hoping it’s not with the boards but it’s starting to look that way. Maybe I’m missing something you might know for a simple fix?

Thanks,

Jake

I'm sorry but the board is principal reason imho... i don't remember if there is any fuse between trap and power board, i don't have saturn yet to check.