Philips Intera 1.5T: gradients will not start after chiller failure
What happened
On a Philips Intera 1.5T with a dual gradient cabinet arrangement, the gradients would not restart after an earlier chiller problem. The power supply in the second cabinet reported Transformer tmp flt, and the gradient amplifier diagnostics showed magnetics a over tmp.
What was checked
- The engineers worked from the gradient amplifier diagnostics, where the temperature flags pointed to the power supply of the second cabinet.
- To localise the fault, they swapped the identical control board between the two cabinets: the error moved together with the board, which pointed to that board as the suspect.
Cause
The fault tracked the control board fitted in the top of the second cabinet's power supply — when the board was swapped between the cabinets, the error followed it. The earlier chiller failure was the likely trigger, but in this single case the conclusion about the board remained probable rather than finally confirmed.
The cause is probable and was not fully confirmed.
What was done
The faulty assembly was localised by the board-swap test; per the manufacturer's recommendation, the remedy is replacement of the complete gradient power supply unit rather than board-level repair. The case was reported with a probable outcome.
Safety
Treat temperature flags as real overheating until the chiller loop is confirmed fully restored, and before opening a gradient cabinet isolate the supply and allow the internal capacitors to discharge.
Lesson: Swapping a suspect board between identical cabinets and watching whether the fault follows it is a quick, low-risk way to localise a control board fault before committing to a full assembly replacement.
Covered in the course: MRI Service — Level 2: Fault-Finding →
Written from an anonymised case shared by service engineers. It is not a manufacturer instruction and grants no authorisation. Independent note; names are trademarks of their owners.