EPSC Microanalysis Facility
Microprobe Procedures

Procedures for Routine Tasks on WU JXA-8200 Electron Microprobe

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Determining the Electron Gun Filament Status

The tungsten filament is used to generate the electron beam and X-rays for analysis. If the filament is burned out then it will have to be replaced. However, the filament may not be saturated, and other issues may cause you to think that the filament is blown. Read the following before making a determination.

• The instrument high voltage must be on for the filament to be emitting. The high voltage setting is displayed on the Present Positions window of the Jeol monitor. If the display shows OFF then the high voltage is off, otherwise the value (15 kV) is shown.
• The filament typically saturates at a filament setting of 130-140 at a bias of 9 (this is the high bias setting that is used for long filament life). If the filament has been desaturated the filament will be at a setting of 90. Check the EOS Monitor to determine the status.
• During sample exchange the gun valve is closed when the instrument is in LaB₆ mode and the electron beam does not reach the faraday cup shutter. The probe current will display a very small value in the 10^-13 amp range. When you have finished sample exchange and the gun valve has opened again, you should see the probe current return to the original setting.

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Imaging Not Working on OS-9 Computer

The JEOL OS-9 Monitor (leftmost monitor) is used for real-time digital imaging. There are several situations where the monitor appears to be frozen or has stopped working

After taking a digital photograph with the Photo button on the JEOL control board, the monitor shows a static frozen image and the Freeze button is illuminated. Press the Freeze button to return to the live scanning mode. This is normal behavior.

Make sure that you have not set the brightness and contrast too low for the image source you have chosen. The compo backscattered-electron image becomes very sensitive at higher contrast and the image may be full white or black as a result. So start by checking basic brightness and contrast settings.

If the instrument is in spot mode then a green crosshair is displayed and it is not possible to acquire a scanning image. Select the imaging mode icon and confirm that you have switched out of spot mode.

If the mouse cursor will not move to the OS-9 monitor, try right-clicking on the Jeol monitor, then again try to move to the OS-9 monitor. This usually means that a mouse click was mis-interpreted and the computer was waiting for a popup menu selection.

The OS-9 monitor may appear to be locked up and not respond to any selection of icons on the monitor. This can be remedied in two ways (it may require both):

• On the JEOL control board, under Image Select, press the INST button which puts the instrument in instant imaging mode. This selects SEI image, photo scan mode, and the most rapid scan rate, and may set the brightness and contrast to a general value. This generally will bring the OS-9 monitor back to life.
• The second fix that appears to work is to select spot mode on the OS-9 monitor, wait a few seconds, then select imaging mode again. This will also bring the monitor back into imaging mode.

Any other refusal to come back to life will have to be remedied by recycling the OPE power switch.

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Normal Standby Computer Operation

All the computers are powered on normally and do not hibernate or shutdown.

Under normal conditions we do not shut down or log off of any of the computers on the microprobe. Only perform the following procedures if things have stopped working with the software.

We do routinely turn off the computer monitors. The microprobe software runs with the monitors turned off.

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Identifying an Interruption in Ethernet Communications

The Jeol and Probe for Windows operating systems both communicate with the Jeol microprobe hardware using a dedicated Ethernet hub with a private LAN address (i.e., it does not have outside world access). If this Ethernet communication link is interrupted then the software does not work and needs to be reestablished.

The symptoms of interrupted communications are as follows:

JEOL Software

• The simplest way to identify a problem is to note that the JEOL Present Values window (aka Monihome) does not show any changes in parameters (faraday cup, probe current, stage position, etc.) when those parameters are in fact changing. This is because the monitor packets that provide these updated values are no longer being received by the JEOL handler on the Sun workstation.
• The Present Values window does not properly show PCD faraday cup being inserted and retracted when PCD button on Jeol hardware control is used. The display should show PCD OUT when the cup is removed and PCD IN when inserted.
• The Present Values window also does not show the correct probe current or absorbed current in the Beam value field, and the value does not change when the faraday cup is removed and inserted.
• The Windows OM Monitor window may show an error message concerning host communication.

Probe for Windows Software

• PFW windows that have a Faraday cup button (i.e., Stage and Move windows which are accessed from the Acquire and Automate windows) do not insert or retract the Faraday cup, or other actions do not work, and error messages are being displayed every time you try to do something from PFW.
• These are generic symptoms of lost monitor communication.

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Restarting the JEOL Ethernet Communications

This fix will restart the Ethernet link. You need to close the Probe for Windows run and quit from Probe for Windows before you do this, because PFW uses the Monitor communications too.

To prepare for this restart of the ethernet link, you should close all the Jeol windows (i.e., Stage,Vacuum, EDS, EOS, etc.) except for the Present Values window. You should also close the OM Monitor window that is running from Windows. You will need to manuall reopen all of these windows after relinking.

1. On EPMA Main Menu of Jeol monitor, select JEOL Menu, Connect EPMA System.
2. “Do you want to re-establish the network communication to the EPMA?” Yes, you want to reconnect.
3. This will restart the Ethernet link between the Sun workstation and the Jeol hardware boards. This process will close some Jeol windows as the processes are terminated.
4. If the Windows OM Monitor application is still active, you will see an OM Monitor error message "Communication with EPMA host was disconnected".
5. If the link is restarted you will see a green EPMA window with “Network Card Connection successful” which you must click on OK.
6. If the OM Monitor application raised an error you must quit by clicking the upper right X and restart the OM Monitor (remember it is a Windows application started from the Start Menu of the Jeol PC).

After a successful reconnection, you need to open the Present Values window from the EPMA Main Menu, Monitor Menu, Present Values. Check that the link worked by moving the Faraday cup in and out from the Jeol hardware keyboard and watching the Present Values window. The PCD should be shown as moving in and out and the probe current value should be changing. If no changes are seen the link did not restart and you have to do it again.

To get back to the same JEOL window configuration you need to reopen the following applications from the JEOL Menu:

1. Monitor Menu: Stage application
2. Monitor Menu: EOS application
3. Monitor Menu: Vacuum application (this has been set up on our 8200 to be called from this menu)
4. EDS Menu: EDS application

You also need to restart the OM Monitor application from Windows using either the Start Menu or the OM Monitor icon which is on the toolbar.

If this procedure does not fix the software problem, you will need to recyle the OPE power, as described below.

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Recycling the OPE Power

If restarting the Ethernet link does not fix the communication problem, it will be necessary to recycle the OPE power. This is the power supply to the Jeol System Command and other hardware boards, but also turns off the microprobe high voltage power supply.

The microprobe high voltage must be turned off by software before the OPE power is recycled.

Here is the OPE Recyle Procedure:

1. Use the EOS Monitor of the Jeol software to turn off the microprobe high voltage. Open the EOS Monitor and click on the Filament button to open the filament window, which you normally use to manually set the filament saturation current. When the high voltage is turned on the HV bar is colored pink. Click on this bar to turn off the high voltage. This is correct, you are turning off the high voltage while leaving the filament current at the saturation value.
2. Close all Jeol software windows except for the Present Values window.
3. close the OM Monitor window of the Jeol PC.
4. You will now need to log out of the Jeol account on the Sun workstation.
5. Log off of the Sun workstation by selecting EPMA Main Menu, Utility, Log off. This will end the Reflection X Windows client session and will return the Jeol PC to the windows blue desktop.
6. Wait for the desktop to change to the blue color of the Jeol PC windows desktop color.
7. On the front of the microprobe column, open the dark plastic door and locate the white OPE power switch. It is on in the up position.
8. Turn the switch to the down position, you will hear a relatively loud clunk-type sound.
9. Wait 30 seconds.
10. Turn the OP power switch back on.
11. Observe the OS-9 monitor on the far left of the Jeol monitors. If the power light is amber, you need to turn the monitor off and turn it back on so that the OS-9 computer links to the monitor. When the OS-9 computer is linked to the monitor it will show a blue power light instead of amber.
12. Wait for the OS-9 computer to fully boot, this takes about 2 minutes and puts the Jeol splash screen up first, then finally builds the icon menus and the photography scale information on the bottom of the display.
13. You must wait for the OS-9 computer to fully boot otherwise the Jeol software cannot link properly.
14. Next you can restart the X windows client session.
15. Double click on the EPMA.rxc icon on the Jeol PC desktop.
16. Wait for the JEOL login window to appear. This may take up to a minute.
17. Log in with the user and password. Remember that you must click in the text field to select it for enry, and that only the user name is displayed, the password does not show any characters when typed.
18. Wait for the Jeol software to fully initialize with the splash screen appearing, then clearing, followed by the JEOL EPMA Menu being built.
19. Confirm that you have a good ethernet connection with the JEOL hardware. Make sure the Present Positions window is active by moving the Faraday cup in and out and making sure the Present Values window shows the PCD and probe current changing as you do so.
20. If you have a responsive Present Values window, you can then launch the JEOL Stage, EOS, Vacuum, and EDS applications from the JEOL EPMA Menu.
21. If you did not have a responsive Present Values window, you can try to reinitialize the ethernet connection as outlined in the previous section. This may be required but you typically only need to recycle OPE power once.

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Problems with the EDS Software

The EDS detector is run from the Jeol EDS software application. The software runs on the Sun workstation like all the other Jeol software, but it uses the pulse processing boards that are in the Jeol PC and the high voltage power supply that is in the EDS power crate.

When the EDS software is starting up you may see a "Subsystem Undefined" error message. This may also happen if the communications between the Jeol PC and the Sun workstation are interrupted. If you get the subsystem undefined error you cannot do EDS acquisitions and the communications must be restated.

Fix for Problems with the Jeol EDS Software

Before going through the whole restart procedure, just quit from the Jeol EDS software, wait 15 seconds, and relaunch the software. Wait about 30 seconds. If the software launches fully you will see a non-grayed out Acq button on the Jeol EDS window, and if you click it the software will start an acquisition. If the button is grayed out and you continue to get an error message with "Subsystem Undefined", then you need to go through the full restart procedure as follows.

1. You will need to shut down the Jeol PC. It is the small Dell PC underneath the counter on the right side of the probe console. This requires that you log out from the Jeol software that runs on the Sun workstation.
2. Close all Jeol windows except for the Present Values window.
3. Close the Windows application OM Monitor on the Jeol PC.
4. From the EPMA Main Menu, select Utility, Log Out. Click on yes, you want to log off.
5. From the Start menu of the Jeol PC, select Shut Down (NOT Restart--you need a full power off).
6. Wait for the PC to shut down.
7. Restart the Jeol PC using the power button on the front of the Jeol PC.
8. Wait for the login window to appear and log in using the proper user and password.
9. You will need to also enter the password for the NFS file sharing window that opens up.
10. Wait for the PC to finish booting, this takes about 2 minutes.
11. Remember that the JEOL software runs in an X Window client session that is run on the Jeol PC.
12. Launch the Reflection X client by double clicking on the EPMA.rxc icon on the Jeol PC desktop. This will launch an X windows session from the Sun workstation and will present a log in window on the Jeol PC after a variable time (usually 15-30 seconds but it can take up to a minute).
13. Log on to the Sun workstation when the login window opens. You need to click the mouse in the text field to enter the user name – it will display the user name, then enter the password – note that it does not display the password.
14. Wait for the Jeol software to fully load. This means the Jeol splash screen needs to come up, then disappear, and the Jeol EPMA menu has been built.
15. Verify that the Jeol software launched by removing the Faraday cup and observing that the Present Values window is responding. If it does respond, you may now launch the EDS software and see if it works without the "Subsystem Undefined" error.