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<DIV dir=ltr align=left><FONT color=#0000ff size=2 face=Arial><SPAN
class=586412016-11032011>Just to clarify my earlier response, I was addressing
only one of several different issues that can cause data acquisition stoppages.
Many of the issues discussed in subsequent messages are due to serial
communication issues between the PC and the DAB board in the instrument. The CPU
overload problems I talked about vary only with the version of the firmware,
whereas the serial communication issues depend on the firmware version, the GUI
version, and also I believe with the specific PC hardware. I have heard it said
that Beckman has seen variation in the extent of the serial communication
problem even within the same model # of IBM computer due to changes in
motherboard components, but I can't confirm that is true. What I do know is that
my XL-I and XL-A never seem to have stoppages due to serial communication
issues, so there are actually combinations of firmware/GUI/PC where this is
minimal.</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><FONT color=#0000ff size=2 face=Arial><SPAN
class=586412016-11032011></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><FONT color=#0000ff size=2 face=Arial><SPAN
class=586412016-11032011>Definitely power line fluctuations are problematic, but
those will normally produce a different error message. The DAB CPU overload
issue I discussed will not necessarily produce a Diagnostic 11 error message.
</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><FONT color=#0000ff size=2 face=Arial><SPAN
class=586412016-11032011></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><FONT color=#0000ff size=2 face=Arial><SPAN
class=586412016-11032011>John</SPAN></FONT></DIV><BR>
<DIV dir=ltr lang=en-us class=OutlookMessageHeader align=left>
<HR tabIndex=-1>
<FONT size=2 face=Tahoma><B>From:</B> rasmb-bounces@rasmb.bbri.org
[mailto:rasmb-bounces@rasmb.bbri.org] <B>On Behalf Of </B>Ute
Curth<BR><B>Sent:</B> Friday, March 11, 2011 3:05 AM<BR><B>To:</B>
rasmb@rasmb.bbri.org; ian.berke@yale.edu<BR><B>Subject:</B> Re: [RASMB] CPU
Board Malfunction on XL-I<BR></FONT><BR></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN lang=EN-GB>Hi Ian,<BR></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN lang=EN-GB>we bought an XL-I equipped with an Aviv
AU-FDS in 2008 and also suffer from severe problems. Either the centrifuge stops
spinning or the computer stops scanning within a run. This happens after
unpredictable times (20 min to 20 hours), at different rotor speeds (e.g. 22, 35
or 50 krpm), independent whether we measure absorbance only or absorbance and
interference but not in every run. Our machine is still under warranty and
Beckman has been trying for more than one year to solve this problem. A lot of
components of the machine (all boards, the display, the radial drive....) were
exchanged, but this did not solve the problem. After having ruled out that there
were problems with the power supply in our institute, they admitted that there
is a timing problem in the communication between centrifuge and computer and
that similar problems exist in about 10 machines worldwide. Therefore, they
modified the firmware and installed a new firmware pre-release (now the machine
stopped scanning regularly in runs which were performed at 50000 rpm) and
afterwards a new version of the GUI, which should solve this problem. In first
tests with the new firmware/GUI combination the machine seems to work more
reliable (it did not stop in several test runs at several speeds), but it turned
out that the new firmware is not able to hand over the correct value for w^2t to
the computer (a plot of w^2t against the time is not linear as expected, but
looks like a saw tooth wave). <SPAN> </SPAN>They are trying to solve this
problem for several weeks now and I still hope that our centrifuge will work
properly soon. Just as a comment: the Aviv fluorescence detection system works
without any problems.<BR></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN lang=EN-GB>Best wishes</SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN lang=EN-GB>Ute</SPAN></P><PRE class=moz-signature cols="72">--
PD Dr. rer. nat. Ute Curth
> Medizinische Hochschule Hannover
> Strukturanalyse
> OE 8830
> Carl-Neuberg-Str. 1
> 30625 Hannover
> Germany
>
> Tel.: +49-511-5329372
> Fax : +49-511-5322909</PRE></BODY></HTML>