Chromatography Forum

Hello!

I have a Waters MUX-UV 2488 detector. It was woking all peachy, then I went away on vacation for 2 weeks, now it has an error message: Filter Initiation Failure Erbium poistion, order filter position. and I just keep pressing enter through those, and at the home screen all the values say "error."
Apparently no one used the instrument while I was away, but there was a power outage. I would consult my handy user-manual except that I don't have one because this is a hand-me down instrument. I tried turning it off and on and got the same errors.

Does anyone know what this kind of error means and how to fix it?
Any information would be much appreciated!

Thanks
Ms.Awesome

That system switches standard filters into the optical path to check the wavelength when it turns on. The system thinks one of the filters is stuck (could really be stuck, or the position sensor is malfunctioning).

I'd wait until no one was looking and then give the detector a good whack with the side of my fist. If you still get the same error, then it's time to have it looked at by a qualified service person.

... and the diagnosis of the qualified service person will be: " This detector looks like it received a good whack with the side of someones fist... no wonder it doesn't work"

Does it sound like something's sticking when you power it up?

I don't have a MUX, but I have found that (almost universally) detector cells have the best and most nucleation sites for bubble formation anywhere in the flow path. I have also found that bubbles can mess up the power-on calibration of other Waters detectors.

Pump a little degassed water/organic of your choice through the detector at a decent flow rate (you may want to bypass the column) and try it again. If that doesn't help, I defer to Tom's advice.

Thanks for all the suggestions everyone!
I will try to play with it today and see what happens.....

-Ms.Awesome