Technical problem with ABI7300 - (Mar/27/2012 )

Hello,

Can someone help me? Our ABI7300 was loaded with the wrong sorts of tubes, and now the sample tray is stuck in the 'up' position and the drawer used to load samples won't open.

What i am looking for is commands we can give the machine to drop the sample tray, or ways to do so manually. We tried dismantling the machine but were unable to figure out which direction would be best for getting at the sample tray -( it is a complex collection of riveted plates and circuit boards in there!)

Please - please if you have any ideas please give them even if you think they are a long shot. It would even be helpful to know if using the wrong sorts of PCR strip tubes can lead to this sort of problem or not.

Tech support was not willing to talk with us ... because our service contract is expired. Needless to say we will take that into account when we buy instruments down the road!

-patty

I can't help, but indeed we should all pay very careful attention to how responsive companies are in supporting old instruments. In my experience, ABI is pretty bad, as is Molecular Devices. On the other end, Bio Rad has been very helpful. I'd encourage other to add their experiences.

Hi, I hope your problem is gone now. We meet the similar problem recently. Would you please give us some suggestions about it? Thanks very much!

We have not resolved it, they won't give us a good deal on a repair, it is hard to even work with their technicians if your service contract has expired. Grrrr! We are looking into buying a new machine.

You can still try carefully open it and take out the plate.