Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Plasma goes out

So I'm just calibrating the mass spec after getting it nicely optimized and out of nowhere, the plasma goes out. That basically means I have to start all over again. I could not find a reason for it to go out. The software that runs the instrument just gave this generic error that it displays anytime anything goes wrong. The software has more bugs than Windows 98.

It's not just pushing buttons all day folks, these things happen all the time. At least half my job is troubleshooting. Finding out why the mass spec is doing what it is doing. So, like a computer, I turned it off and then back on, and everything was fine.