Chromatography Forum

I have this software package for our GC and I can't get it to output our actual chromatogram in any other format than a windows metafile. I have been able to convert the wmf files to jpeg and other formats, but it shows up as a thumbnail that I can't enhance b/c the pixel bit rate is too small (8 bits). I even tried converting it to an enhanced metafile but still got a thumbnail Anyone know of a software package or other that I can use in it's place or should we ditch the windows 95 software and opt for a more sophisticated package?

Thanks

It's not the Windows 95 that's your bottleneck, it's the 3365 software (if that's what you truly have), the first decent one was A.03, and A.06.03 was given out free by Agilent for Y2K, and it works with Windows 95. My unofficial non-legal guess is that makes A.06 free to use for all. A Pentium 1 or 2 computer should be able to accept your current 82235 HPIB card.

Just a note. Agilent never gave out a Y2K software here for 3365, we havd to you pay the normal version upgrade cost. Free copies only went to the people who had purchased the immediately prior version in late 1999.

The problem is the 3365, and even the Windows Metafile is not standard and would not import into versions of Word/Wordperfect/etc that existed at that time. Later versions of software may accept the Metafile.
My recollections was that our version ran on Windows/386, so yours might be slightly later.

My advice, upgrade to Chemstation,

Bruce Hamilton

thanks bruce and consumer guy. as always you guys have helpful info. i have version A.03.34 on this dinosaur windows 95 but it works ok. while i was away from my desk i figured out how to expand the chromatogram while the graphics option is open but we don't have a printer and so i have to print-screen it, which works ok for now.

can we upgrade our A.03.34 on windows 95 for something slightly more sophisticated or are we stuck until we upgrade our desktop first?

i've heard of really fancy pkgs that import a list of chemicals and can identify the peaks based on that automatically calculate relative ret. times (peaks carbon:db ratios), perform baseline checks, adjust areas for peak splitting, calculate response ratios/weight ratios, etc. what kind of software do you guys use?

You can readily run A.06 with Windows 95. Personally, I don't see a ton of difference between A.06.03 through A.09.03, the highest we have in our department (about 11 systems). Two of our contract manufacturers have A.10.xx which apparently is similar but only the "enhanced" integrator setting can be used. Since Agilent only sells the most modern (about $600 USD) upgrade, for that you'd need new computer, new interface to the instrument, maybe firmware upgrade (if available), maybe more. You might try to find A.06 software on Ebay or used instrument supplier. Agilent site has list, and newer versions may require Win2000, WinNT, WinXP.

Edit - CPG posted as I wrote this, similar views. I think the A08+ plus versions may have more macro abilities and export options, but I went from A05 to A08, so can't comment on intermediate versions.

My guess would be that Agilent won't still sell version that would run on Win 95, and the later versions may not even support your hardware.

You need to poke around the Agilent Chemstation site for a table that lists hardware requirements and supported interface cards for each version of Chemstation to see where you can cheaply upgrade to.

The incremental Chemsation early upgrades didn't offer heaps of new functionality and had ever-increasing hardware requirements - if you didn't want to wait until Christmas for your recalculated results.

It's really only the later versions, A08 to B0? that have useful additional export features etc.

It it's important, I'd check that the inferface hardware is compatible and buy a new version of Chemstation and a PC, and possibly also buy a new interface card so you could use the latest version.

Alternatively, you could investigate alternative software, but remember that some feature-rich systems can require a lot more training, and may not be as flexible as the basic chemstation for simple tasks.

Please keep having fun,

Bruce Hamilton

I suspect that you have a 5890 GC of some sort since you're running 3365 Chemstation... Agilent will not support that s/w and the GC anymore.

If you find A.06.xx you would need a PC with WinNT to be able to run on it...don't see that happening.

My suggestion is buy a new PC, Win XP add a new card to it and buy the newest software B.03.xx never mind the "stupid box" that states "this gc is not supported etc.etc. " it will work fine and because the company doesn't support it anyway. ...and it should work out fine.

5890GC are workhorses lots of spare parts around..now get a new PC and software package or you will be left out in the stone ages.

Cherio....

A.06.xx can run on Window 95. The not-necessary but tough part was finding "vintage" CD-writers that went back to applicablility to Windows 95, had to find on the Internet ($25).

thank you all for the input! just curious where did you find A06 on the internet? we've had a hard time finding it on ebay.

thanks

No, we found vintage CD-writers on Ebay. The A.06.03 software was provided free by Agilent to us just prior to 2000 for the Y2K scare. I have no idea if that version would thus be considered freeware or not.

thanks for all the advice guys (I work with ece)

we found a good site here that lists all the compatibility with the os's here:

http://www.techlabservices.com/chromato ... ftware.htm

We are using a 3345 GPIB ISA card in our computer. According to agilent this is compatible with up to A08. A09 and beyond only work with the 82350B pci card.

our options now as i see it:

1. upgrade to A06 on our current w95 machine
2. upgrade to A08-B02 and build a new win2000 box (hopefully the 3345 drivers are compatible with win2000. Would need a new pci GPIB card for A09 and above
3. Look at third party options such as Clarity, mentioned on that site. anybody got any experience with this? how does it compare to chemstation for functionality? What about EZ Chrom?

heres our criteria:
-we are looking for better resolution, particularly peak identification. we are spending a lot of time identifying peaks with questionable accuracy. Currently using A03 software, and other than being told its obsolete, have not been able to get a good description of what the newer versions offer (other than the fact that A06-A08 are essentially the same and are considered to be adequate)

-Ideally would like to spend $700 or less on the software upgrade, but again, would spend a little more if the features merited the upgrade.

thanks again for all the discussion.