Using DAQ on virutal XP

[pacothegreat]

Windows XP is no longer supported by our IT.  We are trying to update a legacy test system by using a virtual XP window on a Windows 7 computer.  The XP window is a mirror copy of our former test computer.  We are not able to install the driver for our PCI-6120, it is not found in the virtual XP hardware tree.  However, it is found in the Windows 7 hardware tree and the hardware operates properly.  Can you tell me if it is possible to run PCI-6120 on a virtual machine?  All of the test software files are executables and it may be impossible to upgrade them to Windows 7.

[Leah-L]

Hey pacothegreat,

Unfortunately it is not possible to run your DAQ device on a virtual machine unless it is a USB form factor. Unfortunately, it looks like you will have to updrage your program from the Traditional DAQ driver to DAQmx. I believe the PCI-6120 is supported by DAQmx, however. 

I know that you said that most of your system files are executables, but if you have access to the source code, this article will be a really good starting place for converting from TDAQ to DAQmx. 

http://www.ni.com/white-paper/4342/en

[pacothegreat]

sorry, I did not see this reply and submitted the request again (7383457 )

However, the technician working with me said that initially it DID work. We may try to install everything again so we can see how it was working.

We don't have all the source code for all the executables...it will be very time consuming to recreate.

I am not sure if you were discussing this in your response but how about transferring the executables to Win7.  We have been attempting that as well but for starters there is a call to a serial port which the executable is not finding.  I assumed this was because I did not have the proper run time engine.  We have been downloading various copies of the run time engine.  Could this be a solution?  

[Leah-L]

Paco,

It seems strange to me that your techinician said that it was working initially. As this document outlines, virtual machines generally cannot access the PCI bus. As such, PCI- and PCIe-based instruments are inherently incompatible with VMs. 

The problem that I think you might run into when running your executables on a Windows 7 machine, is that the Traditional DAQ driver (NI DAQ) is not supported on Windows 7. Even if you have the proper run-time engine, your executable will not work unless it has the proper driver. Can you confirm whether or not your executables use NI-DAQ or DAQmx?