We have an Agilent 6100 single quad LC-MS.  It was working fine until yesterday when I tried to use it to run an FIA analysis. Then during the run, the MSD shut down and I got an error that read: " Capillary/chamber voltage could not be maintained.&qu

Hi there,

Does it work in negative ion or a lower positive voltage? Usually, the first thing I check to make sure I do not have a lot of salt build up in the source. I would carefully takeout the ion basket and clean behind the three pagoda insulators. Also remove the spray shield and  clean that. It hat doesn't work its a defective capillary/chamber HV supply.

Hope this helps,

Mitch

Hi there,

Just following up to see if any of my suggestions helped?

Mitch

Hi Mitch, sorry it's taken me a while to get back with you.  In short, no, it didn't help.  We had a technician come and he replaced the power supply and I replaced the capillary and the cap and spring.  I am still getting the same error message about the capillary/chamber voltage and I am able to tune in positive but not negative ion mode.  Not sure where to go next. 

Hi Mitch, sorry it's taken me a while to get back with you.  In short, no, it didn't help.  We had a technician come and he replaced the power supply and I replaced the capillary and the cap and spring.  I am still getting the same error message about the capillary/chamber voltage and I am able to tune in positive but not negative ion mode.  Not sure where to go next. 

What is the status of the source. Any salt build up? If not and if the capillary hasn't been taken out and the power supply replace, then the issue is more than likely the main board.

No salt build up.  We cleaned that and we already replaced the power supply and capillary.  When the mass spec is on we don't see an increase in cap current (5-10 nA) from when it's not on.  It's as though it's not getting the signal that it needs to turn on, but the chamber current is where it should be (0.8 uA).