Dealing with sequencer problems is hard enough when your machine notifies you of what’s wrong. But working with a machine that won’t give you any information can make you want to crawl under a rock. 

A common service issue we see on 31xx and 3730 series machines is failure of the CCD camera. You may recognize this scenario: You arrive early Monday morning ready for a productive day of sequencing, load your plates, and then disaster strikes!  All that appears in the array viewer is a black screen. Panic mode sets in. After a deep calming breath, you email SeqGen the screen captures for our expert engineers to review and troubleshoot. Within 2 hours, SeqGen’s expert team responds by email and then by telephone:  “We are very sorry to report that your CCD camera has passed away.”  RIP, CCD Camera. You gave us some great years!

If you are wondering about ongoing maintenance for your ABI 3130/xl Genetic Analyzer, or 7900HT qPCR, you aren’t alone. Thermofisher has announced that they will discontinue service for these machines in the not too distant future.

As a matter of fact, if you have one of these machines you’ve probably already gotten a notice saying that you’ll have to upgrade your technology if you’d like to continue maintenance. Lucky for you, SeqGen plans on covering these machines for many years to come!

The dog days of summer are here, and I don’t know about you but at times they can have me feeling burnt out! And just like us, our CE machines can burn out from time to time, too. If you’re seeing that annoying yellow light during initialization, it may be time to check your fuses on your ABI 3730 to see if they need to be replaced. 

When we last left our troubled ABI 3730 user a week ago, she was suffering from blue background haze and had tried SeqGen’s previously mentioned tips to no avail. At this point we look for other reasons for the blue haze in her results.

As you may remember, the buffer, or in most cases the buffer make-up water, can cause a blue haze in your electropherograms. If you're having this problem, you need to check and see if there is any leak in the system.This is to make sure the buffer is not getting pulled into the pump piston and accidently passing into the capillary.

Sometimes running into problems can make us better people and build our character. Other times running into problems can make us want to pull our hair out. If you happen to run into a blue background on your array view, don’t stress just yet. Hopefully, this post will keep you from reaching for some Rogaine. 

They say that it’s all about the little things in life that make a big difference. Although “they” were probably referring to things like compliments or ice cream cones. Instead, we’re referring to changing out the polymer for your 310, 3100, 3130 and 3730 machines. 

Changing out your polymer might not be glamorous, but it is an imperative part of making sure you’re gathering accurate data. If you’ve been wondering how often you should change out your polymer, don’t worry, we get that question a lot

When it comes to your capillary sequencers, we always assume “Green is for go” signaling that everything is up and running smoothly.  You may be looking for the “green light” on your sequencer to ensure you’ve passed the initialization sequence, but it’s just not happening, even after rebooting.  Let’s go through just exactly what you should see.

First and foremost, when checking sequencer functionality, be certain the computer and sequencer are plugged in. Sounds like it doesn’t need to be said, but we’ve seen this issue before.  Also, if the machine has been in “idle” mode for a long period of time, it may have tripped the safety breaker and turned the machine off.  These are two items to check for immediately.

We all need a tune-up every once in a while, and this goes for PDP water trap in your 3730 as well. These PDP water traps should be flushed about once a month using distilled or deionized water.

By performing this procedure at least once a month, you’ll clear out any diluted polymer and bubbles. It’s best to leave the trap filled with the water. Doing this as a part of your regular maintenance will greatly decrease the chances of having a problem with your pump.

Murphy’s Law states: Whatever CAN go wrong, WILL go wrong. As hard as we all try to make sure we are careful to avoid problems, problems are an inevitable fact of life. The sooner we accept this, the sooner we’ll be able to get our machines back up and running! So whatever problem comes your way, when it comes to DNA sequencers, SeqGen is here to help.

Everyone knows to stop at a red light, slow down for a speed bump, or to walk carefully when there is a “caution, wet floor” sign. Signs are there to give us a hint about what we should do next, and luckily for you, DNA Sequencing machines give you signs to help you out.