niVISAe plug-in

[cz2h9n]

Unexpected Error - Measurement & Automation Explorer

The niVISAe plug-in caused an exception in the CmxsCfgResourceExpert::SynchronizeToConfiguration function in the nimxs process.
See this file for details: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users.WINDOWS\Application Data\National Instruments\MAX\Logs\20110603_153800-nimxs-000004FC.log

I have gone through all of the suggested fixes and still nothing. Everytime I run MAX this pops up. Log file is attached.

[Kyle_M]

cz2h9n,

When did this error start occurring? What changed on the system? What hardware are you using? Is this causing a hard crash of MAX? Have you tried doing a repair install? 

Repair install instructions : http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/allkb/AC6ED75D3D93375686256E8E00245F0D

Regards,

Kyle Mozdzyn

Applications Engineering

National Instruments

[Teo7]

I have the same issue. It started out of the blue on a rig at a customer site. The hardware is cDAQ. I have spent two days and everything I could and the error persists.

Error details:

The niGPIBsys.dll plug-in caused an exception in the CmxSysExpertManager::FinalizeExpert function in the NIMax process. See these files for details: C:\ProgramData\National Instruments\MAX\Logs\20130206_163439-NIMax-000011AC.log C:\ProgramData\National Instruments\MAX\Logs\20130206_163439-NIMax-000011AC.dmp

More details attached. I first repaired the existing MAX and device drivers. Then I had to uninstall and install device drivers AUG 2012 (latest) and MAX 5.4.0. Disabled the firewall and antivirus. The issue persists.

[ianidas300]

The first error image that you linked contained a reference to a knowledge base article. Have you read over that article? Here is the link:

http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/allkb/B9107A7F281F9B408625720B0078E5A8?OpenDocument

The link will give you directions for debugging the issue. It also links another knowledge base for fixing MAX corruption that I've listed here:

http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/allkb/2C7480E856987FFF862573AE005AB0D9

Try doing some of the steps they have listed and let me know if it is resolved.

[Teo7]

Thanks Ianidas300

Yes I read all of those resources.

I managed to fix the problem, which was probably a combination of corrupt NI Device Drivers, and MAX database corruption, possibly caused by irregular termination of Windows due to loss of power.

I will summarise the troubleshooting steps below, and throw in a couple of useful tips, which should hopefully help others to get to the bottom of this quickly without having to spend the amount of time I did.

The tricky bit was that researching the initial “Unexpected Error” and its related information wasn’t getting me anywhere, while the time consuming repair process and later the even lengthier NI Device Drivers re-installation process (which I had to carry out as informed guesses) were interrupted due to a failure to stop the "mxssvr" process. The MAX database corruption for some reason was not apparent until after I managed to install the latest revision of MAX.

The instructions on how to stop "mxssvr" manually at your link copied below did not work, and initially I was for some reason even unable to stop it manually through the task manager.

Did not work for me à http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/allkb/F49B07A4E171A3798625771500551018

See my “Note” further down for a workaround to this.

I think if I encountered this issue again I would escalate my efforts in the following order.

1. Attempt to repair/reset the MAX database (the corruption was not initially apparent as the older revision of MAX was not reporting it the same way the latest version did!). I would do this by following the instructions in your link, after obviously trying out the first two suggestions in this link.

http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/allkb/B9107A7F281F9B408625720B0078E5A8?OpenDocument

After resetting the database I restored the MAX configuration by importing a MAX config file, which I had backed up. This is probably the quickest and easiest way to recover the lost setup.

2. Repair MAX through the Windows task manager. Requires the same version of NI Device Drivers that was used during installation.

Note: If the repair is interrupted by an error message stating that it cannot continue because "mxssvr" could not be stopped, go to the Windows task manager, Processes tab, click the "Show processes from all users" button (in Windows 7), then go to the Services tab, sort by "name", right-click on "mxssvr" and select "Go to Process", right click on the process and select "Terminate Process". This worked for me after second time around, after restarting the computer, closing all running programs, and terminating manually any NI processes I thought to be unnecessary.

3. Install the latest revision of MAX. Note that you may encounter the same interruption as in 2 above. Carry out the steps described in my “Note” above to stop "mxssvr" or any other processes which may be preventing installation to continue.

4. Install the latest NI device drivers. (See “Note”)

Thanks again.