QuantStudio™ 6 Flex Real-Time PCR System, 96-well, laptop

Please follow the instructions found in the Software Licensing Quick Reference Guide at https://fnoclient.gss.tf/quick-start-guide to activate or renew a license for the QuantStudio 6 or QuantStudio 7 Real-Time PCR System. If you have a license key associated with a computer that is no longer in use, please follow the instructions to "Transfer a license to a different user or computer" in the above guide.

Find additional tips, troubleshooting help, and resources within our Real-Time PCR and Digital PCR Instruments Support Center.

After launching the QuantStudio software, go to the Maintenance Manager. Check if the QuantStudio system icon is present in the “On the Network” window. If not, click on the ‘Refresh' button to the left of ‘Remove from My Instruments'. If you still do not see the QuantStudio system icon for the following reasons:

- There is an icon but you cannot add it into the "My Instruments" area
- There is a red “X” on the instrument
- A message says "Disconnected" at the bottom of the window with a red “X” in it
then you will need to add the Instrument into the ‘My Instruments' area. Click on the wrench icon in the upper right-hand corner of the icon as pictured below. You may get a message that says the firmware is older than the one you're trying to run. If appropriate, choose to download the new firmware and let it progress to finish. Do not turn off the instrument during this update. After the firmware update is completed, restart the instrument and check for the QuantStudio system icon in ‘On the Network' area.

Find additional tips, troubleshooting help, and resources within our Real-Time PCR and Digital PCR Instruments Support Center.

This error can occur due to allocation of the computer's virtual memory. If you see this message, try the following:

1. Click ‘OK' to the error, close any unnecessary programs, and re-launch the software (you may have to do this several times).
2. Using the Task Manager (Control+Alt+Delete), look for a process called ‘javaw.exe'. Select this line and end the process. Then re-launch the software.

Find additional tips, troubleshooting help, and resources within our Real-Time PCR and Digital PCR Instruments Support Center.

The calibration files are stored on the QuantStudio 6/7 Flex instrument itself; therefore, when you need to perform a new calibration, you will have to delete the old calibration files. From the instrument console, go to the QuantStudio 6/7 Flex instrument touchscreen and select ‘Collect Results'. You should then see a list of files stored on the instrument. Manually select a calibration file such as “Fast-96-cal”, and press the ‘Delete' button to remove the old calibration file. Occasionally, users cannot delete the file off the instrument and may encounter this error: “Some experiments did not collect results therefore cannot be deleted.”. In these situations, launch the software, go to ‘maintenance', manage files, and download the calibration file. The status of the experiment should be displayed as ‘complete'. Next, delete the old calibration file and rerun the calibration.

Find additional tips, troubleshooting help, and resources within our Real-Time PCR and Digital PCR Instruments Support Center.

The ‘reveal traces' feature for genotyping runs allows you to trace the clusters throughout the PCR process. For some assays you may find better cluster discrimination at, say, cycle 40, as opposed to cycle 50. To use this feature, the amplification data needs to have been collected for the run.

- Go to ‘Analysis Settings'
- Under the default ‘Call Settings' tab, Choose ‘Analyze Real-Time Rn Data'
- Click ‘Apply Analysis Settings'
- Under the Allelic Discrimination Plot, check the box next to ‘Reveal Traces'. You can then move the slide bar to see how the data changes with the cycles number.
In the example below, the image on the left shows the data at a full 40 cycles. The image on the right is the same data after revealing traces (grey lines). The clusters can be traced back by moving the cycle bar. Notice that one point is no longer called at the earlier cycle set point.

Find additional tips, troubleshooting help, and resources within our Real-Time PCR and Digital PCR Instruments Support Center.