Hardware Replacement

[jimmyv]

I have a Turbochrome workstation that I bought in 1998 which runs a Perkin Elmer 200 Series autosampler, quaternary pump and DAD.

Can I buy a computer harware to replace my current old computer or is there something propietary that Perkin elmer needs to put in the hardware.?
I still have the turbochrome software and a license to use it.

Jimmy

[DR]

If everything is hooked up through a COM port, and you have a COM port available on the new PC, you *might* be OK running XP, somewhat less likely having success w/ Vista. If you've got some sort of proprietary P/E card in the PC, it will all depend on the slot it's in (PCI - OK, ISA - problematic) and if P/E ever issued drivers for it to work w/ any post Windows/98 OS.

Best bet: Call P/E or visit their web site to get some assistance figuring out the above.

[gcguy]

I was in a similar situation with a PE Turbo mass. The PC died and I had to get a replacement. PE only approve Dell PCs for their systems and there are some tweaks that have to be done to the BIOS to make them work. I am not sure if this is the same for HPLC but if you contact PE they should let you have a copy of their installation script.

I don't think any of PE software is Vista compatable so if you buy a Dell PC you will have to pay extra to have one with XP.

GCguy

[jimmyv]

Yes, you both are right. PE prefers Dell which I currently use. Initially PE loaded it with Windows 95 but I installed Windows 98 after 5 years of use and it worked fine. The computer seems fine but my problem is that It cannot seize the DAD. There seems to be a communication problem and PE thinks it is a bad card inside the computer. I got a quote of $ 3,500 to update and repair the problem and My boss do not want to spend the that much money on this old system.

Jimmy

[gcguy]

Jimmy,

If it is the PC that has broken, you could go down the route of buying a pc from Dell and paying PE to do an installation. This should keep the costs down a bit.
If it is the board on the instrument then I am sure you could buy a used/scrap one somewhere and swap the boards over. It might cause problems with firmware revisions but PE should be able to give some advice for free over the telephone.

I am running my Turbomass using XP.

GCguy