Um...we don't have a button for that, ma'am

*sigh*
I just spent the past hour fighting with an automated instrument in the chem lab of the hospital, getting it to take in my manual programming for a method and then entering in all the info for my samples and such so I could test it all out and run some standards I made up. We want to try and make it do something the company doesn't sell as a test - a new one. One that could help with diagnosis if we can ever get the damn thing running. In addition to methods and chemicals the company sells to run tests, they have "user defined" chemistries - in which they coyingly say in the manual you can use to "easily set up" a new method as you like, using the cartridges and "large variety" of methods in the software, and your volumes and instructions.

Easily my ass.

Once I waded through the mazes of confusing menus and fought with the machine, consulted the manual, banged my head, called the company (and got their oh so helpful techs who just did what I did and said "huh, you're right- That is odd..."), banged my head and even said I Wish I Were an Oscar Myar Weiner in my head to calm down and keep myself from swearing like a sailer...and I managed to hammer out what I needed, tweak it, and enter in my samples. Then I loaded all the stuff in and walked away. I didn't get any error messages and it appears to finally be working for me (after only 4 previous attempts at programming and optimizing)

Tomorrow morning I shall pop in and see if I have any results or many printouts of pages saying ERROR FAILED RUN.

If you hear a scream coming from the labs at ~9AM CST...just look away. It's for the best.