Aria and the high voltage board...

Hello all,

We purchased our FACSAria in July 2004 and overall have been happy with it; it gives higher purities of sorted populations than the MoFlo we have, but it takes more time to get it there.  However, my question has more to do with other people's experiences with their Arias and the high voltage boards.

We have had two go out since we purchased it, and today, it appears that it has gone out again.	The outermost streams (both far left and far right) when I do a test sort cannot reach out nearly as far as I know we have had them do in the past, even with the plate voltage set to maximum and the stream adjustment bars slid as far out as possible.  I might be able to sort two populations, those closest to the waste stream, but the outermost ones are iffy, particularly the left one.  I am reluctant to sort today because of this.  I currently have a call in to BD and I am waiting for a callback to confirm my suspicions.

The question is:  What is the track record of these boards?  Is the problem stemming from bad power, since we are located in Oklahoma and are subject to all kinds of severe weather, or is the problem more on the order of poor design/poor implementation?

We did have a rather strong storm move through two nights ago, with high winds, hail, hard rain, and the obligatory possible spring tornado, but we had no indication that we had lost power that night; this stream problem manifested itself yesterday, and no system in this lab is on a UPS or other power regulator.  As stated before, we have a MoFlo, as well as an LSRII, a Caliber and a FACScan.  Any insight would be useful, as we are considering obtaining a UPS or line regulator if this appears to be the problem.

Thanks for the time,

Diana Hamilton, Ph.D.
Flow Cytometry Core Facility
Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation
Oklahoma City, OK