PCI GPIB card not always finding instrument (gives different errors)

[chris_amadasun]

Hello,
Before we conclude that your card is faulty do you have some other GPIB device that you can test with?
Also can you test to see if another NI GPIB device can successfully query your HP instrument?

[sweetneet]

Hi,
thanks for the reply. No, at the moment I don't have any other instruments I could connect..but I will  try to find something.

I don't have another computer with an NI GPIB card...though I do have another PC that has an Agilent USB GPIB card that is *always* able to successfully query the 4156c.

[sweetneet]

update: I have (finally) found and solved the problem!!

basically the problem (source of errors) was not with the NI GPIB card or sofware, but with an another GPIB application on the PC. The thing is the PC i'm using is controlling an automated Suss prober. That was running its own GPIB application in which the address of the NI card was to 22 (i knew the GPIB app was running, but I didn't know it had set the address!). So I guess that's what it meant about the address conflict..in MAX I had been setting the primary address (PAD) to 0, 1, 2, 3 (i was trying a bunch, i hadn't gotten up to 22 yet, lol) while the other program had been setting the PAD to 22. When I finally set the address to 22 in MAX, it worked..and stayed working!

once this was fixed, i simply set this PC to be a non-system controller in MAX, and connected it via GPIB to the other PC running ICV. Now that PC "sees" and can talk to the other PC !!!

anyway, thank you all VERY much for your help!!