1. I would skip the IVI driver form Agilent and use the LabVIEW/VISA driver from NI or the example that someone else posted. IVI can be nice but it's probably a bit too complicated for a beginner to set up quickly.
2. You don't need anything from Agilent.
3. You should install MAX
4. You should install VISA
5. You don't need IVI right now (only if you want to run Agilent's IVI driver)
6. VXIpnp is just a folder that some components of VISA and IVI get installed to. Leave it there.
7. Hyperterminal is a terminal emulation program that comes with windows. Go to it from Start>Programs>Accessories>Communication. This is a program designed for serial communication. You open Hyperterminal and configure the port. You need to select baud rate, parity, handshaking, stop bits, etc. If any of these settings are wrong or the cable is incorrect, you will have errors. A framing error indicates that one or more of the port settings is incorrect. A termination character is usually a line feed or carriage return that gets appended to the end of the command line. Hyperterminal adds this for you when you type the command and hit the enter key. When you write a program in LabVIEW, you have to do this in your code. The Instrument I/O Assistant does this as well. On a Write command, the termination character is shown on the right side of the screen. A line feed is a \n and a carriage return is a \r. You have to find out which one your instrument requires. That info should be in the manual. Imho though, it's important that you get everything working with Hyperterminal first. Serial communication is a big enough pain with adding the complexity of writing your own program first.
