When I start our Agilent 7700x quadrupole ICP-MS, the plasma comes on, moves towards the cone and then shuts down producing the following error message:
1230, Error: Plasma was shutoff when opening gate valve
and occasionally:
1135, Error: Malfunction on gate valve open. Valve closed again.
Things I tried to fix the problem:
1. Switch from laser ablation to solution mode. This initially produced two new error messages:
1233, Error: RF generator has switched 48V power supply off
1218, Error: Plasma was shutoff (Plasma RF Monitor)
2. Cut back the fibre-optic cable in the source. This removed errors 1233 and 1218 but brought back errors 1230 and 1135.
I don't know if this is relevant, but the MassHunter software briefly reports an Analyzer Pressure of 8E+6 Pa immediately after the error. Then it changes back to the usual 9E-6 Pa. I don't know if this has anything to do with the problem. A megapascal of pressure seems rather impossible.
Pieter Vermeesch
London Geochronology Centre
University College London
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