Troubleshooting

Note: see also the issues page in this github repository, or visit the slack channel, if your question is not answered below.

• I get some error when trying to connect to the probe. E.g. it cannot be detected, or gives an error on startup.

  • Basic steps to try first:
    1. Close the software completely, power down FPGA, wait 10 sec, power on FPGA, open software, try again.
    2. As in (a), but when everything is powered down, try unplugging and reconnecting every connection. Remember that the gold side of the flex has to go down onto the headstage connector.
    3. As in (a), but try also rebooting the computer (sometimes ethernet ports get into a weird state).
    4. See if the error message is described in the manual or below.

• I have a problem with the "EEPROM", what do I do?

  • The EEPROM is a small piece of memory that stores the probe's serial number and gain calibration values. Some users have had problems with this becoming damaged. In that case, you may get an error message about the EEPROM (in spikeglx) and/or the serial number that you see from the probe may not match the true serial number (if you are not using an Option 4 probe, it may also show as Option 4). However, all is not lost as the gain calibration values for your probe can be downloaded from the IMEC website and applied externally. Contact Tim Harris for access to the IMEC website, and see spikeglx documentation for how to use these downloaded gain calibration values.
    • Note! You can also get an error about EEPROM in the case of a loose connection, so first try reconnecting the probe and restarting the system.

• I have some multiple-of-12 channels that have no signal, and show constant voltage offsets with zero noise.

  • This is likely due to a problem with the amplifier, multiplexer, or ADC inside the probe. Each 12 electrode sites are amplified, multiplexed (12:1), and then digitized by one ADC.

• Using SpikeGLX, I get a "IMEC: Setextref error 5". What does it mean?

  • We think it is likely that this probe is irreparably damaged. As a last resort, you can try skipping gain calibration and ADC calibration (in SpikeGLX, choose to "force" the probe and indicate that you don't have the calibration files). The data may be inaccurately scaled in this case (but should be within ~20% of true values).