PCI-GPIB drivers won't load

[ronl]

Attempting to install a universal NI PCI-GPIB card into an IBM x345 server using 4882 v2.1 drivers. The card works in the 5v PCI slot of the server but, does not work in any of the 3v slots. The Windows hardware wizard identifies it as a Simple PCI Communication device and says that it cannot find the driver for this device (even though it searched the installation CD).

[theW]

Hello,

Revision K of the PCI-GPIB board is keyed for both 3.3V and 5V slots, see http://ae.natinst.com/operations/ae/public.nsf/fca7838c4500dc10862567a100753500/1dfe63598a43e28a86256a300050d97e?OpenDocument. Be sure that you have loaded the NI-488.2 Driver before you put the card in the system. If you have not done this, delete all references to the card in Device Manager, remove the card, and install the 488.2 drivers before continuing. Then, put the card in a slot and boot the computer. Windows should then detect the card and attach the drivers to the device.

Scott B.
National Instruments
Applications Engineering

[ronl]

Scott, I have tried this many times. We actually have two versions of the std universal GPIB card (different chip sets) and also a Low Profile version. None of them is detected as a GPIB card in the 3v PCI slot. All are detected as a Simple PCI Communications card. And the subsequent driver load in Hardware Wizard does not find what it thinks to be the right driver. You can see it searching the install CD, it just doesn't find what it's looking for, because it's looking for the wrong thing. These cards work when installed in the 5v slot. I have also tried copying the install disk to the HD and installing from there, with no success. I have loaded all the latest BIOS upgrades for the server (and IBM x-series 345).

[ronl]

Scott,
Here is what we found. All of the various PCI-GPIB cards work in the 5v PCI slot of the IBM server, using 448.2 v2.1 drivers. None of the cards work in the 3v PCI-X slots of the IBM, using 448.2 v2.1 drivers. All of the cards work in the 3v PCI-X slots of the IBM, using 448.2 v1.7 drivers. So, the issue seems to be with the GPIB drivers. What is it that the old driver is doing differently from the new driver? Can this be fixed. Also, we noted that on bootup this server produces and error that points to the NI-PAL driver (from the GPIB driver install) is invalid. The NI-PAL driver from the DAQ7.1 install works (it is a later revision). Is there another release planned for the GPIB drivers that could incorporate these two fixes.

[theW]

This is unexpected behavior, since our most recent revision of PCI-GPIB supports 3.3V slots. What operating system are you on, for starters? The difference between a 3.3V slot and a 5V slot is all in the signalling levels, so I would not expect massive differences between software driver versions 1.7 and 2.1. Could you provide to me the NI-PAL errors that you're getting?

If you would be interested in troubleshooting this issue further, I would like to see if you can get 488.2 v2.1 working with your card(s) in a 3.3v slot by removing all NI Software (mainly to get rid of that PAL error and keep the version of PAL that come with 488.2) and loading NI-488.2 v2.1 by itself. Next, put a card in the 3v slot that is a revision K card (confirm this by
the Assy number = 183617K-01) and see if the driver can detect it.

Let me know the results of this test if you'd like to perform it, but it seems like you have a workaround if you do not wish to take these steps with your system. I'm not sure if this is an issue in the 488.2 driver or simply in your configuration of NI Drivers.

Scott B.
National Instruments
Applications Engineering

[ronl]

1. We are using Win 2K Server.
2. The NI-PAL error is on bootup, after Windows loads, when the system request the user to enter to continue and then enter the account user code/password (in this case administrator). The system error message is that "A device or service failed". If you then look in the system Event Viewer, you see that NI-PAL is listed as an invalid device. [This only happens with the older NI-PAL rev).
3. If I remove the DAQ driver, leaving only the v2.1 GPIB driver, I get the NI-PAL error. With only the GPIB v2.1 driver installed, ignoring the NI-PAL error, the Windows Hardware Wizard detects the card and seems to load the driver. (NOte: the driver load process is only 1 or 2 sec which seems to quick compa
red to the 5-10sec when using v1.7 driver) But, when you check under Device Manager, this device has an exclamation point over it and the system says "Device could not start Code 10:". All of this does not happen with the v1.7 driver. We have tried this with 4 different PCI-GPIB and GPIB+ NI cards, all with the same result.
4. This is not a solution because we need the 5v slot for a PXI-3 card which can only run on 5v.
5. What did you mean by the "configuration of the NI Drivers"?

[GPIB_Guru]

If I understand you correctly, if you install NI-488.2 2.1 by itself, the version of NI-PAL that is included does not work. If you install DAQ7.1, which has a newer version of NI-PAL, NI-PAL loads correctly and NI-488.2 then works correctly?

If that is correct, I can verify that this will be addressed in the next release of NI-488.2

[theW]

What version of NI-PAL is loaded on the computer to cause this behavior? You can find this in Measurement and Automation Explorer by expanding down the "Software" group.

Scott

[ronl]

Not quite. Yes, the NI-PAL that is in DAQ7.1 works. It does not, however, make NI-488.2 v2.1 work. Only NI-488.2 v1.7 works in these 3.3v PCI slots.

[ronl]

NI-PAL v1.6.3f0 causes problems. (Loaded with NI-GPIB 488.2 v2.1)
NI-PAL v1.7.0f0 works OK. (Loaded with NI-DAQ7.1)