What are possible causes of dropouts in baseline using centroid data in MassHunter Qualitative Analysis?

This problem can be caused by having an ion which is just at the edge of the acquired mass range.

At certain points, the baseline will show sudden drops which then will quickly restore themselves.

This is because the ion at the edge occasionally is not condensed into the range of the detected ions. This will especially apparent if that ion is one of the major ions.

The solution is to change the scan range settings in Acquisition. If the ion is important, then the range should be extended 10 amu more than the ion.

If the ion is considered noise, then the scan range should be narrowed 5 amu away from the ion.