VISA Find Resource response time

[Al is 5150]

I'm trying to find all VISA resources on my development PC using the VISA Find Resource vi and its taking 15 minutes to produce the list?  This doesn't seem right.  I've put a similar application on a seperate PC and the list is generated right away with the serial ports.  I've tried going into MAX > Tools > VISA Options to disable some search options but I can't make it to that dialog because I receive a MAX "Database connection error".  I've tried fixing that problem by following the KB I found by disabling firewall and deleting the data folder but none of those options seemed to fix my MAX problem.  I'm thinkin its related to the long query time with the Find Resource VI.  Even the VISA Interactive Control application takes a long time (aprox 15 minutes) to find devices.  If anybody has had this problem and resolved it please let me know.  I'm using NI VISA Version 4.1

[GPIB_Guru]

It could be that VISA is searching the network for remote devices.

If you put a "/" (forward slash) at the front of your viFIndRsrc string, it will tell VISA to only look for local devices and skip looking for remote devices. You can also probaly look at MAX and see if you have any remote systems configured that are not turned on.

[Al is 5150]

The forward slash ("/") didn't help either.  I'm not sure but I think maybe my problem with MAX database connection error might be related to my VISA Find Resource problem as I can't navigate through the Configuration tree in MAX.  I don't receive any errors when I look under the Remote Systems node.  On initial startup of MAX on expanding the "Devices and Interfaces" node brings up the Database connection error as well with the Tools > NI VISA > VISA options menu selection.  I'm going to try and reinstall MAX and see if my problem goes away. 

[Krista H]

This could very well be an issue. The VISA Resource node does use MAX to compile a list. You can try the re installation but you could also follow this KnowledgeBase.

Message Edited by Krista S on 05-30-2007 03:14 PM

[Al is 5150]

I found that KnowledgeBase before and none of those options has helped me.  I repaired my installations and that didn't help either.  I did however find the problem.  If I stop the service "NI Service Locater" (which also stops the "NI PXI Resource Manager" service) my problems go away.  MAX functions properly I can reach the VISA Options page.  My VISA Find Resource VI finds all my VISA resources in aprox 6 seconds which is the way it worked before.  So something with the "NI Service Locater" is causing the problem.  I tried running that service without the "NI PXI Resource Manager" service running and MAX kept throwing me that database connection error and my problem with the VISA Find Resource was present again.  So for now I'm just going to disable that service as I don't think I need it?

[Krista H]

Hey Al,

Well that gives you a work around for now but the NI Service Locater does several things including working with the Example Finder. Here's a link that shows several ways to re-start the NI Service Locater. You could try a different way and see if that has an affect on the error. You should also check and see if you have any fire walls that are blocking LabVIEW. This would explain why the error and the VISA Resource's behavior.

[Al is 5150]

Problem Solved!

Thanks Krista

I have configured my fire wall to be disabled and removed all permission settings for any NI executables.  My fire wall seemed like it was disabled and didn't warn me of the NI executables trying to communicate as it did before but LabVIEW still didn't work correctly. So I decided to uninstall the fire wall to see if it really was causing my problems... a reboot later and my problems were gone