Windows Installer for FlexMotion keeps comming up!

[NickS_537]

When I log into my machine as a different user, every time I try and run IE or a VB app, Windows Installer keeps trying to install Flex-Motion again!

This is a production machine and NOT acceptable!

How can I get rid of this d*mn thing? I tried installing Flex-Motion again, but now it just gives me "Can connect to network share WinNT\". ARGH!

How can I fix this without designing out the NI hardware from my system (which I would LOVE to do, for all the crap it's caused me!)

[nestor-sg]

Nick,

The reason why the installer will pop-up with IE or VB application is because for some reason your previous installation or operation of the driver broke some file. MAX controls Motion and it is built over IE and VB, so whenever you call this applications it searches registries and founds that there is something wrong with a file in Motion, it will try to go and repair it itself, but since it does not finds the install files it pops up the installer (and the installer searches the registry which as a user you don't have access to), I believe this is the reason also for your message "can't connect to network share...", probably your motion driver was installed from that directory and you don't have access to it as a user. Your best option is to download the files t
o install the driver to your computer, then log as an administrator, install flexmotion (reinstall), and leave the files there. Log as a user and you should be able to use the motion hardware with no problem. In case you do, then your system may be having other issues that we need to troubleshoot more deeply, we have lots of customers using NT, 2000 and XP with users operating motion without any trouble so we may be facing a more complicated issue.

If you have any other concerns about NI software or hardware you can also discuss this with us so we can see what is the reason for this issues to happen, and give you the solutions to help you succeed. Developing with unknown hardware or software can be frustrating but at support we look forward to help you out master our products.

Feel free to contact us, you will find the details at www.ni.com/ask and select "phone NI" from the support options so you can talk with one of us.

Good luck!

Regards,

Nestor Sanchez
Motion Contro
l Support
National Instruments

[NickS_537]

Just as a follow-up to your answer, and as information to others who may be thinking of buying NI products. I have talked to NI Tech Support and they have verified that there is a problem with the NI Flex-Motion software and its installer. Currently there is no work-around solution. I could also not get an answer as to when there will be a fix for this bug, or even if someone is actively working on it.
This seems like a major issue and can be a real show-stopper for some users who wish to use this hardware in a production mode. Unfortunately it’s too late now for us to switch to another product for this project, but it certainly makes us think twice about using NI again.
I know I am probably talking to the wrong crowd here, but people need to know what t
hey are getting in to when they purchase hardware from NI.

[JonF]

I had this same problem, and NI tech support couldn't figure it out. I eventually did - it's a user privelege problem.

To complete properly, the Windows userid must have at least power user priveleges for MAX and FlexMotion to install, initialize, and run properly.

I reported my results to NI tech support in incident
#1071-H8R492: FlexMotion 5.1.1 constantly reconfigures unless user has administrator privelege on September 6, 2001.

Hope this helps,
Jon