Unable to open .vi application

[nwashton]

When trying to open a .vi application the following error ocurrs: "The application is improperly formatted".

I attempted to fix the problem by uninstalling and re-installing the nidaq software but the problem persists. During the nidaq install the following error ocurred: "NI-PAL 1.5.6f0 Engine error"

Any ideas?

[smercurio_fc]

I'm not sure what you mean by ".vi application". Are you referring to a VI or an executable. Is ".vi" the extension? That's a LabVIEW VI. That opens with LabVIEW. Do you have that? If it's a VI and you get that when you try to open it then you may have a corrupt VI. If you post the VI here someone else can check it. Or, is the extension ".exe"?

[nwashton]

It's a LabView virtual instrument with a .vi extension.  As far as I can tell a stand-alone version of Labview is not on the computer, only the "virtual instrument". Apparently the program was operational until the contents of the hard drive were "imaged" and placed on a newer machine.

[smercurio_fc]

If you don't have LabVIEW installed then you can't open the file. It's like having a PowerPoint file, but no PowerPoint with which to open it. If the drive was imaged then it's likely that LabVIEW was uninstalled prior to the imaging. Do you see anything (assuming Windows) in the Start->All Programs menu related to National Instruments? How about in the C:\Program Files directory? There should be a "National Instruments" directory there and inside of there there should be "LabVIEW" directories for the installed versions.

[nwashton]

I understand, and I am completely at a loss - other users insisted that they never had stand-alone LabView and that the virtual instrument worked fine.

Thanks for your input.

[smercurio_fc]

Well, then maybe you actually have a built application that was created from a VI. In that case all that's required is the LabVIEW Run-Time Engine, which is a free download. But, this cannot be used to open a VI. A VI is source code. The Run-Time Engine will run an executable that was created from a VI. You cannot use it to open source code. To open a VI you need the LabVIEW development environment.