Agilent Technologies 7890A Operating instructions

Agilent Technologies

Agilent 7890A

Gas Chromatograph

Troubleshooting

Notices

No part of this manual may be reproduced

in any form or by any means (including

electronic storage and retrieval or transla-

tion into a foreign language) without prior

agreement and written consent from Agi-

lent Technologies, Inc. as governed by

United States and international copyright

laws.

Manual Part Number

G3430-90014

Edition

Third edition, April 2009

Second edition, May 2008

First edition, March 2007

Printed in USA

Agilent Technologies, Inc.

2850 Centerville Road

Wilmington, DE 19808-1610 USA

安捷伦科技（上海）有限公司

上海市浦东新区外高桥保税区

英伦路 412 号

联系电话：（800）820 3278

Warranty

The material contained in this docu-

ment is provided “as is,” and is sub-

ject to being changed, without notice,

in future editions. Further, to the max-

imum extent permitted by applicable

law, Agilent disclaims all warranties,

either express or implied, with regard

to this manual and any information

contained herein, including but not

limited to the implied warranties of

merchantability and fitness for a par-

ticular purpose. Agilent shall not be

liable for errors or for incidental or

consequential damages in connection

with the furnishing, use, or perfor-

mance of this document or of any

information contained herein. Should

Agilent and the user have a separate

written agreement with warranty

terms covering the material in this

document that conflict with these

terms, the warranty terms in the sep-

arate agreement shall control.

Safety Notices

CAUTION

A CAUTION notice denotes a hazard. It

calls attention to an operating

procedure, practice, or the like that, if

not correctly performed or adhered to,

could result in damage to the product

or loss of important data. Do not

proceed beyond a CAUTION notice

until the indicated conditions are fully

understood and met.

WARNING

A WARNING notice denotes a hazard.

It calls attention to an operating

procedure, practice, or the like that, if

not correctly performed or adhered to,

could result in personal injury or death.

Do not proceed beyond a WARNING

notice until the indicated conditions

are fully understood and met.

Troubleshooting 3

Contents

1 Concepts and General Tasks

Concepts 10

How to troubleshoot using this manual 10

The [Status] key 10

Configurable Items to Always Keep Current 11

Column configuration 11

Automatic Liquid Sampler configuration 11

Gas configuration 11

To View the Run Log, Maintenance Log, and Event Log 12

Information to Obtain Before Calling Agilent for Service 13

2 ALS and Detector Symptoms

Plunger Errors 16

Vial Mishandled by ALS 17

Syringe Needle Bends During Injection into Inlet 18

FID Does Not Ignite 19

FID Ignitor Does Not Glow During Ignition Sequence 20

Corrosion in FID Collector and Ignitor Glow Plug 21

FPD Does Not Ignite 22

NPD Adjust Offset Process Fails 23

3 Chromatographic Symptoms

Retention Times Not Repeatable 26

Peak Areas Not Repeatable 27

Contamination or Carryover 28

Isolate the source 28

Check possible causes—all inlet and detector combinations 28

Larger Peaks Than Expected 30

Peaks Not Displayed/No Peaks 31

Table 1. Detector troubleshooting 31

4Troubleshooting

Baseline Rise During Oven Temperature Program 32

Poor Peak Resolution 33

Peak Tailing 34

NPD 34

Peak Boiling Point or Molecular Weight Discrimination Poor 35

For any inlet operating in split mode with any detector 35

For any inlet operating in splitless mode with any detector 35

Sample Decomposition in Inlet/Missing Peaks 36

Peak Fronting 37

Noisy Detector, Including Wander, Drift, and Baseline Spikes 38

Noisy baseline 38

Baseline wander and drift 39

Baseline spiking 40

Figure 1. Cyclic spiking 40

Figure 2. Random spiking 40

Low Peak Area or Height (Low Sensitivity) 41

FID Flame Goes Out During a Run and Attempts to Reignite 43

FID Baseline Output Above 20 pA 44

FPD Flame Goes Out During a Run and Attempts to Reignite 45

FPD Output Too High or Too Low 46

FPD Low Peak Areas 47

FPD Large Peak Width at Half-Height 48

FPD Baseline Output High, > 20 pA 49

NPD Solvent Quenching 50

NPD Response Low 51

NPD Baseline Output > 8 million 52

NPD Adjust Offset Process Not Functioning Properly 53

NPD Low Selectivity 54

Negative Peaks Seen with TCD 55

TCD Baseline Has Dampened Sinusoidal Noise Trailing Peaks (Ringing

Baseline) 56

TCD Peaks Have Negative Dip on Tail 57

4 GC Not Ready Symptoms

GC Never Becomes Ready 60

Troubleshooting 5

Flow Never Becomes Ready 61

Oven Temperature Never Cools Down/Cools Very Slowly 62

Oven Never Heats Up 63

Temperature Never Becomes Ready 64

Cannot Set a Flow or Pressure 65

A Gas Does Not Reach Setpoint Pressure or Flow 66

A Gas Exceeds Pressure Setpoint or Flow 67

The Inlet Pressure or Flow Fluctuates 68

Cannot Maintain a Pressure as Low as the Setpoint on a Split Inlet 69

The Measured Column Flow Does Not Equal the Displayed Flow 70

FID Does Not Ignite 71

FID Ignitor Does Not Glow During Injection Sequence 72

NPD Adjust Offset Process Fails 73

FPD Does Not Ignite 74

5 Shutdown Symptoms

Column Shutdowns 76

Hydrogen Shutdowns 77

Thermal Shutdowns 79

6 GC Power On and Communication Symptoms

GC Does Not Turn On 82

GC Turns On, Then Stops During Startup (During Self-Test) 83

PC Cannot Communicate with GC 84

7 Checking for Leaks

Leak Check Tips 86

To Check for External Leaks 87

To Check for GC Leaks 89

Leaks in Capillary Flow Fittings 90

8 Troubleshooting Tasks

To Measure a Column Flow 92

Measuring FID, TCD, uECD, and FPD column flow 92

Measuring NPD column flow 94

To Measure a Split Vent or Septum Purge Flow 96

6Troubleshooting

To Measure a Detector Flow 98

Measuring FID, TCD, uECD, and FPD flows 98

Measuring NPD flows 100

To Perform the GC Self-Test 102

To Adjust the FID Lit Offset 103

To Verify That the FID Flame Is Lit 104

To Verify FID Ignitor Function During Ignition Sequence 105

To Measure FID Leakage Current 106

To Measure FID Baseline Output 107

To Measure NPD Leakage Current 108

To Verify That the NPD Bead Is Ignited 109

To Verify That the FPD Flame Is Lit 110

To Adjust the FPD Lit Offset 111

Troubleshooting 7

8Troubleshooting

Agilent 7890A Gas Chromatograph

Troubleshooting

Agilent Technologies

Concepts and General Tasks

Concepts 10

Configurable Items to Always Keep Current 11

To View the Run Log, Maintenance Log, and Event Log 12

Information to Obtain Before Calling Agilent for Service 13

10 Troubleshooting

1Concepts and General Tasks

Concepts

This manual provides lists of symptoms and corresponding

tasks to perform should you experience errors associated

with GC hardware or chromatographic output, GC Not Ready

messages, and other common issues.

Each section describes a problem and provides a bulleted list

of possible causes for you to troubleshoot. These lists are not

intended for use in the development of new methods.

Proceed with troubleshooting under the assumption that

method(s) are working properly.

This manual also includes common troubleshooting tasks as

well as information needed prior to calling Agilent for

service.

How to troubleshoot using this manual

Use the following steps as a general approach to

troubleshooting:

1Observe the symptoms of the problem.

2Look up the symptoms in this manual using the Table of

Contents or the Search tool. Review the list of possible

causes of the symptom.

3Check each possible cause or perform a test that narrows

the list of possible causes until the symptom is resolved.

The [Status] key

Be sure to also use the [Status] and [Info] keys on the GC

keypad while using this troubleshooting information. These

keys will display additional useful information related to the

status of the GC and its components.

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