[RASMB] CPU Board Malfunction on XL-I

John Philo jphilo at mailway.com
Thu Mar 10 12:44:19 PST 2011


Ian, this is a problem which I believe occurs in all XL-I's. Basically under
some circumstances the CPU on the data acquisition board (DAB) gets
overloaded and just can't keep up with everything it needs to do. One
symptom that this is occurring is indeed that the XL Monitor window on the
computer runs several minutes behind real-time. 
 
The circumstances that usually create this problem are running both optical
systems together and using high rotor speeds. I actually don't think I've
ever been able to complete a run at 60K rpm when collecting both absorbance
and interference data. Increasing the interval between scans will help avoid
crashes.
 
Because of this problem between runs you always should cut the power to the
instrument to make the DAB clear itself out. If it starts off 'confused' you
may hit trouble under circumstances where otherwise you would not.
Restarting the computer will not help.
 
John

  _____  

From: rasmb-bounces at rasmb.bbri.org [mailto:rasmb-bounces at rasmb.bbri.org] On
Behalf Of Ian Berke
Sent: Thursday, March 10, 2011 12:23 PM
To: rasmb at rasmb.bbri.org
Cc: david.keller at yale.edu; Incarvito, Christopher
Subject: [RASMB] CPU Board Malfunction on XL-I


Hi all, 

We have an XL-I machine (~1.5yr old) which has given a CPU board malfunction
error (code#11) several times now.  It happens after several hours and the
centrifuge just shuts down while the computer still thinks it's scanning.
Beckman tells us it's a software problem on the computer and an upcoming
software release should fix it.  They suggest that in the meantime I do a
short absorbance scan (r 6.2-6.7) of the counterbalance to allow the
computer's data saving to catch up with the AUC scans of other cells.

I don't know if it's related, but a couple of times I also noticed that the
centrifuge and the computer were out of sync as the centrifuge accelerated
to speed.  I started the centrifuge from the computer and began calibrating
the laser for IF.  That part went as normal, but when I looked at the XL
monitor on the computer, the speed readings were delayed by ~1-2min and the
computer would be waiting for speed and not letting me start scanning until
it had caught up.

Has anyone else experienced this problem?

Thanks,
Ian
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