PC cannot communicate with the GC unit in GC/MS system

Dear Agilent Community Members,

I found that the PC on our GC/MS system lost the communication with the GC unit (7890A).
It can communicate with the MSD unit (5975C).
The PC and these units are connected via a switch.
Ping from the PC to the GC didn’t go through (all packets were lost).
Ping from the PC to the MS was fine.
The system was working until August 10th then I found the issue on August 12th.
I saw there were a couple of Windows Updates during that period (including the restart of the PC).

Here are what I have checked.
- All cables and switch for the connection were fine.

- IP address, Default Gateway and Subnet mask were set appropriately.
PC: 10:4:40:170
MS: 10:4:40:169
GC: 10:4:40:168
Subnet Mask: 255:255:255:0
Default Gateway : 0:0:0:0

- I once changed the IP address for the GC to the one used for the MS unit but ping didn't work.

- I tried the direct connection between the PC and GC unit via a crossover cable and tried ping, but all packets were lost.
The direct connection between the PC and MS unit using the same cable was fine (thus, the cable was OK).

- I tried ping using another PC with the firewall stopped, but ping didn’t reach GC (ping to MS was fine).

Based on the attempted troubleshooting, I am suspecting a hardware issue on the GC unit, such as malfunction of the network card inside.
However, I would like to know if there are something I can do before having a service.

Thank you in advance for your help.

Regards,
Kosuke Ohgo

Parents Reply Children
  • Hi Ish,

    On the Command Prompt of Windows, the result of ping was

    C:\Users\GCMS>ping 10.4.40.168

    Pinging 10.4.40.168 with 32 bytes of data:
    Reply from 10.4.40.170: Destination host unreachable.
    Reply from 10.4.40.170: Destination host unreachable.
    Reply from 10.4.40.170: Destination host unreachable.
    Reply from 10.4.40.170: Destination host unreachable.

    Ping statistics for 10.4.40.168:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss).

    When I started MassHunter,

    the message was

    "Alert

    GC at IP address 10.4.40.168 did not respond."

    then the software got stopped.

    Thank you,

    Kosuke

  • Press option key from gc keypad then go in communication and see what ip address is showing there in GC..

  • It is 10.4.40.168, that is what I am pinging to and the one on the configuration of MassHunter, sadly.

  • Ok..means IP in GC option keypad is same what entered in PC..

    Can you see any light on back of GC where Lan is connected.

    Led light on network switch hub is not red..

  • I am sure automatic update of windows is off, firewall off...

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