[en] A comparison among nine computer codes shows surprisingly large differences where it had been believed that the theroy was well understood. Each code treats an argon plasma, optically thin and with no external photon flux; temperatures vary around 1 keV and ion densities vary from 6 x 10¹⁷ cm^-3 to 6 x 10²¹ cm^-3. At these conditions most ions have three or fewer bound electrons. The calculated populations of 0-, 1-, 2-, and 3-electron ions differ from code to code by typical factors of 2, in some cases by factors greater than 300. These differences depend as sensitively on how may Rydberg states a code allows as they do on variations among computed collision rates. 29 refs., 23 figs