Re: XL Upgrade

Deb Grove (dsg4@psu.edu)
Fri, 21 Aug 1998 21:44:37 -0400

We struggled with our 377 shuttting down in the first hour for a few
months. This started about 4 months after we got the Upgrade and could
never trace it to any certain event. PE-ABI techs even spent a week
working on it. We removed all additional software and even took it off our
UPS for a week. New hard drive etc.
Resent the firmware again and again.
We finally decided that PE-ABI could do nothing for us and we now go
through a series of steps that seem to ward off the problem.
The computer and 377 are both shut down and after both are turned back on
-- NOTHING else is done other than starting up the collection program for a
run.
Plate check and prerun are done and then 1/2 of the samples are loaded. 2
minutes on prerun and then the last half of the samples are loaded.
Cancel prerun, load sample sheet, bring up status window, start new run.
Save gel file when asked. Bring up gel image to watch the run with the
status window showing at the right side. WATCH for 10 hours instead of 1
hour here! However, it has shut off during the first hour even with 10
showing so the last important thing to do is:
NEVER leave it during the first hour.
We have not had any shutdowns since we have started this.

Deb G.

At 1:56 PM 8/21/98, Christine Bogle wrote:
> Molecular Biology Core Facilities 1:28 PM 8/21/98
> Dana 830 XL Upgrade
> 632-3082
>
>We had the XL upgrade installed on three of our 373 machines about a month
>ago. Since the upgrade, we have had numerous problems. We have lost two gels
>on one of the machines due to an insufficient number of scans. One run only
>had 230 scans collected and the second run had 750 scans before it stopped.
>The log files for both of these runs showed they ran the full 14 hours we had
>them set at. Unfortunately, we run the machines overnight and no one was
>around to catch the problems when they happened. Everything seemed fine when
>we left at night. We have also had strange things happen to the other two
>machines during the prerun and loading stage. Sometimes the program will just
>quit when we try to resume the prerun mode or when we try to start the run up
>and the machine will say the run was completed.
>
>I've called Tech Support about these problems, and they told me to try a total
>reset on the machines as well as resetting the translation processors. I have
>had to do this too many times in my eyes. Before the upgrade on these
>machines, I have probably only needed to totally reset my machines four times
>in the last five years.
>
>I was wondering if there are other people out there who have had similar
>problems with their upgrades and what they recommend trying.
>
>I would appreciate any words of wisdom from any of you.
>
>Thanks.
>
>Christine Bogle
>DNA Sequencing Facility
>Molecular Biology Core Facilities
>Dana Farber Cancer Institute
>Boston, MA 02115
>(617) 632-3082
>christine_bogle@dfci.harvard.edu

Deborah S. Grove, Ph.D.
Manager, Nucleic Acid Facility
210 Wartik Laboratory
Pennsylvania State University
University Park, PA 16802
Tel: (814)865-3332

http://www.biotec.psu.edu/lsc/stf/naf/naf.html