Infinium 54820A running very slow

[macgeorge]

Hello all!
I have an Agilent Infinium 54820A oscilloscope in my lab, which is currently running very slow, so I would appreciate any suggestions, since I believe it' s a pretty good machine (500MHz 2GS/s) and don't have currently the budget to buy a new one.
There has been a message in the past that "fine interpolator has failed" and the oscilloscope would stop the acquisition. After a restart or two, it would operate again normally. I overrode this problem by disabling the sinx/x interpolation and afterwards entirely disabling the interpolation (by setting the screen to display only dots).
However during the following years the oscilloscope started to operate very slowly, for example when I change the time scale, it needs 5 seconds to display the new time scale etc. All of the functions, or even the Windows menus, the graphics etc also have a very large display delay. Agilent provided me with a new version of OS (Windows 98 whereas the original had Windows 95). During the restore, the hard disk check showed that it had bad blocks so I changed the hard disk. However, the problem was not fixed.
So, do you have any suggestions of what should I try?
Thank you in advance!
George

[amyk]

CPU overheating and going into thermal throttling? Check heatsink/fan/thermal compound...

[free_electron]

The interpolator failure is most likely the problem.

Pop the cover off and take two pictures , one from the top , one from the bottom. I may be able to help.
I need to know the VIN (label on the back)
I need to know if it has the intel or the via motherboard ( intel has the big linear regulator on a heatsink)

Then i need to know if the scope board uses the ceramic chip or the hybrid module for interpolator.
If its the ceramic : it may be dead because of heat.

I have the hybrid.

[macgeorge]

Thank you guys for your immediate answers.
So, the oscilloscope is the first version 54820A with no VIN # (the one with the mechanical floppy disk eject button).
I am attaching two pictures. If it's not very clear please tell me what more info you would like. I can see an ez1083 regulator with a big heatsink
(bottom right).
Since I opened it, I changed the thermal compound, just to be sure. Based on the jumpers, it's already clocked to the maximum 200MHz frequency.

[free_electron]

Ok i know what machine you have. It is the intel motherboard.
And the scope board is using the old ceramic chips. These sometimes fail. The newer machines use a hybrid module with a tqfp bolted onto a pin grid array.

Let the machine warm up for half an hour. Go to the help menu and runthe selftests. See what happens ( if there are no errors)

Post any errors here. That way i can tell you which of the two chips is bad.
Itseither the chip with the two labels on ot or the one with the label in the center.

[macgeorge]

Thanks for your help!
I can see which chips you are referring to.
Ran the self test and I got the following errors:
Test offset Dac FAILED
Test pattern trigger FAILED

[scroky]

Hello all,
i also have a big problem with my Agilent Infinium model 54810A.
At the first, the only ch2 has a problem: about 35kHz of big sinusoidal internal oscillation in the input offset chain...
But then, suddenly at the startup appear "Fine interpolator handshake failed: service is required".
I think that the problems are in the acquisition board...
Can someone help me, please?
Thank you in advance!
Alessandro

[free_electron]

The interpolator sits  on the ceramic modules. those are unobtainium. ...
my stock is depleted.

[mmatic]

MY 54820A disk died. Is there anyone who can share disk image?

[mankan]

@mmatic I have some images, see your messages inbox on this forum.