Agilent GC 7890 firmware issues

<p>Hello All,</p><p></p><p>We're currently running the Waters A7890 GC ICS v. 2.0 with GC firmware A.01.10.1 (as suggested in the release notes).  We've recently purchased 3 new 7890s and Agilent claims that their firmware cannot be downgraded to A.01.10.1 as the old logic board is discontinued.  The lowest we can go is to A.01.11.1.  I know that upgrading the ICS to v.2.01 (or higher) would resolve this problem but due to time, cost and resource constraints we would prefer to avoid upgrading the ICS right now.</p><p></p><p>I have found a PCS on issues with ICS v.2.0 running with firmware A.01.12.1 however, nothing on A.01.11.1.  Has anyone had any experience with this?</p><p></p><p>Thank you.</p><p>George</p>

Comments

  • Hello George,

    The 7890GC ICS v2.0 was tested with firmware version A.01.10.1.  As you noted there is PCS 47899 documenting issues with firmware A.01.12.1.  There is also PCS 47718 documenting issue with A.01.11.1.  These issues in the 7890 GC ICS 2.0 were corrected in ICS 2.01

    The 7890 ICS version 2.0 will not work with any 7890 firmware higher than A.01.10.x.  Data acquisition will not take place.  In order to support these new GCs, you need to update the ICS.

    To successfully use the Agilent 7890 GC with A.01.11.1 or A.01.12.1 firmware and the new logic board you will need to install the 7890GC ICS 2.01.

    Since you need to upgrade the ICS, you may want to plan to jump to ICS version 2.5, which has added support and a target for availability sometime in February.  Note that 7890 firmware version A.01.13 has been released and is included in our testing for the version 2.5 project.

    If you would like to work with some restrictions, it is possible to set up an acquisition client temporarily for the 3 new GCs and do all the work (control, acquisition, and reporting) from that client.  The ICS would need only to be loaded on the computer that controls the instruments and the user computer needed for operation and reporting.  Important: Should you choose to proceed this way,  new project(s) must be created for the new systems in order to avoid mixed methods--a version 2.01 method is not backwards compatible with a system that is still running version 2.0 ICS.

    Best regards,

    Dot