Running into a “vial out of range” error on your Agilent GC or GC-MS system?
Don’t worry—it’s a common mistake with an easy fix. In this video, we walk through what causes this error and how to solve it, especially if you’re using an Agilent 7683 autosampler.
What does “vial out of range” mean?
In my experience—when the GC says ‘vial out of range,’ it means you typed in a number that it can’t access.
The biggest mistake people make is on a typical Agilent GC with the 7683-type autosamplers (which are all over the place—really common out there). They have a turret. The turret can either handle only one sample (called the transfer turret) or it can be a sample turret that holds up to eight samples.
Now, if you get the newest autosampler, it does up to 16, but we’re talking about the 7683. So that one has eight samples, labeled 101 through 108.
If you type in “1” and you do not have a side tray, then it’ll say ‘vial out of range.’
The numbering in the Agilent world is like this:
- If you have the side tray (I’m sorry I don’t have one in my backdrop right now—I’m looking at one across the lab), it’s the round side tray that holds up to 100 vials. Those positions are labeled 1 to 100.
- For the front injector, it will be 101 to 108.
- If you put the tower in the back, it’ll be 201 to 208.
So that’s the secret in finding the right vial number. You can’t use 1 through 100 because those numbers are already taken—even if you don’t have the side tray. The system still reserves those numbers.
How do I fix the error?
Enter a vial number that matches your configuration:
- No side tray → Use 101–108 (front) or 201–208 (back)
- With side tray → Use 1–100
Hopefully that’ll be an easy answer—and cost you no money—to fix that one.” If you have other questions reach out to us here.
