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Too High of Signal EM setting

the_isle_of

Hello,

I have been consistently getting the attached error when performing the Startup. "EM setting failed because of too high signal". I have seen a few things here regarding too low of signal for the EM setting, but I have yet to find anything about too high signal. The performance report also does not look good, although we have been getting perfectly fine (linear) results for calcium, manganese, copper, tin, aluminum, zinc and so on. This performance report is fairly consistent- the mass at 89 usually looks nasty, the other two at least resemble peaks. We cleaned the cones in October and do not use the system often- probably 1-2x a month with aqueous samples only. 
We are new to ICP-MS, we were trained in October and when our trainer was here the counts for the performance report looked similar (however 89 was a bit higher) and the peak shape was better.
This is the tuning solution we are using, with both the IS and standard/sample nebulizer in the tuning solution. (Our autosampler broke so we are running manual mode at the moment). https://www.agilent.com/store/undefined/Prod-5185-5959/5185-5959
This is a 7700, with an old version of MassHunter, B.01.03. 
I'm mostly curious what the thoughts are regarding the "too high signal", and what that even means. I am taking the system offline next week to change pump oil, and can check the cones then. Thanks.

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  • 0

    Hi,

    this is a very nasty mass axis.

    Could you please confirm, that you have S-Lenses installed, as they are configured.

    Please have a look, through this troubleshooting guide and follow the instructions. Hopefully it will solve your problems, or at least we have a better inside where to search.

    Best Regards

    Chris

  • 0 in reply to cschulz

    I started working through the pdf. On step 1, it asks if 12, 56, 80 are zero when using pure (which I assume means 18 megaohm) water. Technically they are not, they are around 30 counts. So I proceeded to Step 1.2.1 (finally found the add to queue, it's under the hardware pane in my version of MH, in case that's helpful to someone else). I then got an error about being unable to set the resolution axis. 
    My questions are: Should I consider 30 counts zero?

                                  Does pure water mean 18 megaohm/Millipore deionized?

    Thanks.

  • 0 in reply to the_isle_of

    You definitely need to worry about the 30 counts. Millions are normal. Has anything been done around the quadrupole recently?

    And I usually agree with ulrichntaniel, but I wouldn't do the EM tuning with a mass other than 80.

    You are not using "custom tune with override hardware settings" do you?

  • 0 in reply to cschulz

    No, that option was not checked in the Masshunter configuration.
    I did clean the cones and now I see about ~1500 counts for 12 & 56, ~150 for 80. 
    It looks like we need a new sampling cone. Is it possible that is the entire issue?

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