Everyone knows how truly incredible Next-Generation Sequencing is. From its unparalleled speed and throughput, to the reduced manpower and cost it takes to perform, there’s never been a better way to sequence a genome.

For many labs, offering Next-Generation Sequencing is an absolute necessity, while others have experienced the growing need to provide NGS technology because of the numerous advantages. From research to forensics and everything in between, chances are your lab can benefit from NGS.

Over the past few years we’ve been bringing you the most common issues and best trouble shooting tips through our blog. There have been all kinds of odd errors for us to work on this year, but we kept seeing these particular problems occur over and over.

Since we love working with our partners in the lab, we wanted to dive into our blogs and bring you the most helpful tips and tricks we could find. So without further ado, here are the 5 most helpful hints we've given out so far.

Yes, we all know it’s that time again. New Year’s Resolutions are notoriously hard to keep, however you’ve finally convinced yourself, “This is the year I finally stick with my gym membership past February!” But have you thought about any resolutions for your lab?

Check these 5 things.

We don’t need to tell you the importance of having your HiSeq operating at its full potential, but it can be difficult to determine if your machine is in need of a preventative maintenance visit.

But luckily there are a few tell-tale signs to look for in each area. If you feel that your HiSeq performance is beginning to decline, and you’re noticing discrepancies in your data, check for these 5 things for common errors.

Your lab has made the leap into the next generation sequencing world. It's an amazing technology that has exceeded the boundaries of what traditional sequencing methods could support. With tons of moving parts in the HiSeq, the list of possible errors you can encounter during a run is seemingly endless.

This quicker sequencing capability also brings the concern of bigger and costlier repairs or even annual maintenance service. To avoid sub-par results from your samples, a preventative maintenance visit should be scheduled at least once a year for your HiSeq.

If you have an ABI 3130/xl or 7900HT, you’ve probably been asking yourself “What will I do when the OEM stops servicing my machine?” Depending on your labs’ specific situation, it might make sense to go ahead and upgrade to a newer model, but this just doesn’t make sense for a lot of the labs out there.

Congratulations! You finally have a fancy new next-generation sequencer, and now your throughputs are going to go through the roof. However, just like with any sequencer, you need to have a coverage plan, for instances when something goes horribly wrong. You might think that you’ll be fine for the first year since Illumina provides a warranty, but that isn’t quite the case.

When your sequencer just stops in the middle of a run it can be flat-out scary. Everything was going fine, and now it seems like someone just hit your machine with a bat. We know that you probably immediately start thinking of the parts that you’ll need to replace, as well as the lost revenue and time. Before you reach for the checkbook and a bottle of migraine pills, hold on just a second. Let’s back up a few steps and attempt to get to the root cause of the issue.

When your autosampler stops prior to the completion of a run, check the event log to see what is going on. There are many possibilities for autosampler failure, and depending upon when the failure occurs and what the actual error message is, you may be able to salvage your data.

SeqGen is dedicated to our customers and your machines. Your concerns become our concerns. We have been receiving many emails and phone calls from our customers asking if they have to upgrade their sequencing and fragment analysis software to work on the Windows 7 operating system. Like many major updates with these machines, this can run you a pretty penny, and you’ll want to make sure you actually need the update before you blow your budget.

You may have gotten a notice from your manufacturer saying that in order to have the best security and efficiency for your machines, your software should be replaced to run under Windows 7. It may not sound like much of a setback; that is until they mention the multi thousands of dollars that you will need to find within your budget to upgrade your data collection software! THAT is quite the setback.

If you’ve been following our blog, you know that regular maintenance is key to the health of your machines. We all know that our sequencers are made up of a bunch of smaller parts. We also know that eventually some of these parts wear out and it’s time to dig into the piggy bank to cover the new pieces if you do not enjoy Platinum coverage with SeqGen for your capillary electrophoresis machines.

Unfortunately, we haven’t found a way to beat Father Time when it comes to wear and tear on certain parts, but there are some things you can do to hold him off.