Chromatographic Symptoms

This section describes symptoms you may observe in the chromatograms generated by data acquisition. In general, these symptoms do not prevent you from operating your GC/MSD system. They indicate, however, that the data you are acquiring may not be the best data obtainable. These symptoms can be caused by instrument malfunctions but are more likely caused by incorrect chromatographic technique.

No peaks	Baseline is high
Peaks are tailing	Baseline is rising
Peaks are fronting	Baseline is falling
Peaks have split tops	Baseline wanders
Peaks have flat tops	Retention time drifts

The following two symptoms apply both to Chromatographic Symptoms and Mass Spectral Symptoms:

• Poor sensitivity
• Poor repeatability