TestStand Test Environment adapter dll error and Type Palette error

[aaronb]

Doug - The TestStand sequence editor works just fine. It is only when i load the deployment GUI that I get the errors. I tried the DependencyWalker (very cool by the way) and it did give me some errors. Please see attached JPG's for all three different dll's I am having problems with. It looks like all three have a common missing file "DWMAPI.DLL" and also three other DLL's with Warnings. Any idea how to fix these?

[aaronb]

Cole - I confirmed that our GUI deployment was written originally in C#

[ColeTrain]

Hey aaronb,

For anyone else who comes up on this again in the future, the first dll missing (the dwmapi.dll) will be missing on machines using XP.  That is a Vista and Windows 7 dll and this behavior is mentioned in a couple of other forums (like here or here). I know you said the other dlls reside on your computer in the System 32 folder so it looks like something else is going on here.

A good next step to try will be to try opening up one of the Operator Interfaces that come shipped with Teststand.  Try opening multiple OIs (not at the same time) to see if one will load while another one won't.  Specifically I am curious about the C++, LabVIEW, and .NET interfaces.  Feel free to either post back or give me a call with how this goes.  Thanks,

[ColeTrain]

Thanks,

Then try the C#, .NET, and LabVIEW interfaces in that case.

[aaronb]

Cole,

The sample C#, .NET, & LabView OI's located at the below locations on my machine worked without error. I was able to load and run a sequence....Please verify via the locations below that I was running the correct OI's you were requesting......

C# - C:\Program Files\National Instruments\TestStand 3.1\OperatorInterfaces\NI\Full-Featured\CSharp\bin\release\TestExec.exe

.NET - C:\Program Files\National Instruments\TestStand 3.1\OperatorInterfaces\NI\Full-Featured\VB.Net\bin\release\TestExec.exe

Labview - C:\Program Files\National Instruments\TestStand 3.1\OperatorInterfaces\NI\Full-Featured\LabVIEW\TestExec.exe

-aaronb

[dug9000]

Aaron,

When using depends.exe, not all errors it reports are valid. Also it helps to collapse the tree and look at the toplevel dlls, those are usually the only ones that are real problems.

That said, since the sequence editor and other UIs work, it sounds like a problem with the way you are building your UI. Check your project settings and compare them with the C# UI that ships with TestStand. Also if you are on a 64-bit OS, make sure that your UI's platform is set to x86 in your Visual Studio build configuration (i.e. use the visual studio configuration manager) otherwise your UI will not run on 64-bit OSes.

Also, if you have a manifest file for your exe, your might want to rename it to make sure that that is not what's causing the problem.

Hope this helps,

-Doug

Message Edited by dug9000 on 04-28-2010 10:31 AM

Message Edited by dug9000 on 04-28-2010 10:36 AM

Message Edited by dug9000 on 04-28-2010 10:38 AM

[aaronb]

Cole,

Have you had anymore time to look into this? I still haven't been able to figure it out.

Doug -

My company paid a 3rd party company to build this UI for us in C# about 6-7 years ago and we do not have the source code. This UI has worked fine after installing it and using it on probably 20+ machines over the course of the 6-7 years. The UI has been in use in our main production product test area and has worked flawlessly in the past with this being the first time we have ever encountered these particular errors.  I have installed it and am using the same TestStand version we always have at v3.1.1 and the same Labview version as the other engineers within my company LV7.1.1. One difference is that I now also have LV2009 installed on my machine but I doubt that would be the problem as the errors occur while the UI .exe is loading before I can select a sequence to load. I am using a 32-bit WinXP machine w/SP3 (fully updated within the past 2 weeks on Windows Update site). This UI seems to work flawlessly on every other machine we install it on at my company except for my machine. The problem seems to be something with my machine and not the UI.  

[ColeTrain]

Hey aaron,

I have been looking into this and have a potential solution.  Check out this knowledgebase.  It doesn't have the exact same error, but the solution to that error would be the same solution that we will want to try.  Please let me know how it goes or if it helps. 

If this doesn't work for you, you could take a look at this forum and try the attachement located there to test to see if this is a permissions issue.  

[aaronb]

Cole,

I saw those same two postings in the forums about 2 weeks ago. I tried them at that time and also again today and neither fixes the problem.

-Aaron

[ColeTrain]

Thanks for the update Aaron,

I am going to be chatting with some of the other engineers around here to try to find an explanation for this.  At this point we're still a little unclear on what is causing this. I hope to hear back from our development team and I will let you know what I can find. 

Also, can you explain what is different about this UI compared to the compiled ones that come shipped with TestStand?  Is there any added functionality with this?