visa32.dll could not be loaded, NI Visa vs TekVisa

[Cullen]

I installed TekVisa (never again), and now I am trying to repair my NI-Visa installation.  MAX seems to think that NI Visa is installed,  but it won't run.  The installers that I have tried won't install it, and Start>Control Panel>Add Remove Software goes through all the motions of repairing it, yet, I still have no visa32.dll in WINDOWS\system32\  Is this the proper place?  Where can I find that file?  Can I manually install it with regsvr or whatever?  Is there a registry key?  I have about a week's worth of NI software to install if I have to do a complete re-install, so I am not considering that.  I hope that since this must be a common problem that someone has documented what to do, and that I have just missed finding the answer.  I am using LabView 8 now.

Thanks,
Cullen

[Matt_S.]

Hi Cullen,

A complete uninstall is PROBABLY not necessary. Usually we can get NI-VISA straightened out without destroying too much of what you have done.

A) Yes, C:\Windows\System32\ is the correct place to be looking for VISA32.dll. If it's not there, NI-VISA will have issues (any VISA for that matter).

B) You definitely want this file to be put there by our installer, not just placing it there. NI-VISA does install some reg-keys that have to be there in order for it to run correctly.

C) Instead of doing a repair on NI-VISA, I would recommend an uninstall (of only NI-VISA), then a reinstall of NI-VISA. Make sure you're using the latest installer for your Windows.


Let us know if we can be of any more assistance.

Regards,
Matt S.

[Makoto]

As I know, the following steps are the general approach for fixing multiple VISA conflict problem.

1)Uninstall all the VISA software from Control Panel Add/Remove.
2)Look for C:\VXIpnp or C:\ProgramFiles\VISA directory that may not be deleted correctly.  If they exist, delete them.
3)Look for HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\VXIPNP_Alliance registry entry.  If it exists delete it.
4)Look for C:\Windows\System32\VISA32.DLL.  If it exists, delete it. 

(Before deleting them, keep the directory's backup as need.)

After that install the target VISA software version.

[theshade]

Same bloody experience...

It's incredible I just installed the TekVISA (never again) latest version from april 2008 it asks if it should make the install and keep all NI-VISA files but still deletes visa32.dll. Then trying to repair and all and still no dll..
Software developpers really do think you have nothing else to do then just  lose your time.



Message Edited by theshade on 06-13-2008 07:53 AM

[Cullen]

>>Software developpers really do think you have nothing else to do then just  lose your time.

Nah, it's our managers who insist we ship prototypes.  And folks who think programmers should also do code testing. 

Lately I have taken up this guy's nifty little utility http://optics.eee.nottingham.ac.uk/vxi11/   I've also moved away from doing instrument control from within LabView or Matlab (both are terribly slow at it anyway).  PyVisa is also quite a nice wrapper around NI's VISA.  And, it can be called from within LabView or Matlab.

The conspiracy theorist in me suspects that some of this (non) interoperability might be deliberate; though I wouldn't know who to blame.

[Song_M]

Hey theshade!

The previous poster is correct.  We will need to reinstall NI-VISA inorder to get visa32.dll back.

Use Add/Remove hardware to remove NI-VISA, then delete the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\NATIONAL INSTRUMENTS\NI-VISA registry entry from regedit.

Then download and instsall the newest NI VISA 4.3.  The link for the download is below

http://joule.ni.com/nidu/cds/view/p/id/988/lang/en

Please post any further questions.  Thank you!

[sindbad]

TekVISA  sucks .... donot use it.

NI-VISA rocks