How To Configure a New GC/MS with the Agilent GC/MS Configuration Editor

Created by Xu Li-hua over 1 year ago | Last modified by Carlos Vargas over 1 year ago

This Information Applies To: Agilent GC/MS MassHunter Acquisition Software

Issue

The GC/MS Configuration Editor can be useful when troubleshooting GC/MS MassHunter Acquisition software.

It may be useful when troubleshooting some types of software issues, for example:

Acquisition software loses communication with instruments.GCMS Data AnalysisGCMS Data Acquisition
Acquisition software displays unknown errors when starting, tuning the MS or acquiring data files.
Unknown errors with data analysis software, etc.

Initially, try to resave the instrument configuration, which will create a new default method file, sequence file and tune file. See method 2 in the article How to Reset the Agilent GC/MS tune file to default values.

If resaving the instrument configuration doesn't fix the issue, try adding a new instrument according to the following steps before resorting to re-installing the software.

Steps to follow

Close GC/MS software and click the desktop icon Agilent GC/MS Configuration to open a new session.
Before creating the new instrument, we should collect and verify the required instrument information for preparation. Information required includes MS Type, GC Type, GC IP address, MS IP address, MS DC polarity.

For the existing instrument configuration, you could click the instrument number at the left top to obtain the instrument information (see Figure 1).

Figure 1. Agilent GC/MS configuration information
1,2 - Select Instrument number to obtain the instrument information or configure, 3 to 8 - Instrument configuration information
Create a new instrument by clicking an unused instrument number on the top left of the Instrument Configuration window (Figure 1, point 2). Fill out the configuration information, including the Instrument Name, MS and GC Model, MS and GC IP address, MS DC polarity, Workflow mode, PAL sampler (if installed on the system) etc. Complete the new instrument by clicking Ok > Yes. For further details, see this video:
Close the Agilent GC/MS Configuration editor and the Windows desktop icons shortcuts for the configured instruments are created:

Simultaneously, an instrument folder for the new instrument is created automatically in path X:\MassHunter\GCMS:
Double click the desktop icon GCMS to launch the new acquisition software or double click GCMS Data Analysis icon to start the data analysis software and verify that the problem has been solved.

Creating a new instrument also created the default method file, sequence file and tune file, if the initial error occurred during data acquisition, before acquiring new data, you must tune MS and create a new method with the default GC/MS method.