From: Dr. Neil Errington <neil.errington@nottingham.ac.uk>
  To  : rasmb@bbri.org
  Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1999 09:49:05 +0000

Re: Help wanted with a serious XL-A data communication failure

Dear RASMBers

we also have intermittent communication problems with our XL-A. We are
running the 4-hole rotor with version 3.00 of the interface software. Our PC
was not Beckman supplied. I was aware of the possible problems with power
management features and screensavers and these are disabled in BIOS and in
Windows as John Philo suggested. The problem has not ceased but is far less
severe than Jack's we lose a few scans in about 1 in 20 experiments.

One thing I have noticed is if "OK" is pressed immediately or soon after the
DAB failure notice appears then everything keeps going as planned and little
if anything is lost (I noticed this as I was working next to the PC when the
notice appeared on a couple of occasions). However on overnight runs or when
the machine is unattended and the fault occurs..the scans cease altogether,
but sometimes do resume when OK is pressed. This is obviously not a good
situation if you are performing a velocity experiment!
We have had new data acquisition boards installed in the XL-A to no effect,
and the fault never appears when a service engineer is present (of course).

If anyone has any other suggestions as to what we can do they will be
gratefully received.

all the best

Neil Errington


PS - the Web address I circulated at the end of last year has had to be
discontinued due to some administrative problems locally. The pages are in
the process of being combined with the (re-vamped) main NCMH pages. The new
address will be circulated shortly. Sorry if anyone tried to access it and
just got failure messages.



Dr.Neil Errington
Manager, NCMH Business Centre
School of Biological Sciences
University of Nottingham
Sutton Bonington
LE12 5RD UK

Phone/voicemail: +44 (0)115 951 6156
Phone/Fax:          +44 (0)115 951 6157