National Instruments 321042A-01 Chapter 4 Installation Verification and Troubleshooting

Chapter 4Installation Verification and Troubleshooting

This chapter describes how to verify the hardware and software installation and how to

troubleshoot problems.

The ni-pnp.exe program should be located in the root directory of your boot drive,

usually C:\. It should be run from your autoexec.bat file, so that ni-pnp executes

every time your system is started. ni-pnp normally produces very little output when it

is run, displaying only the name of each National Instruments interface module it detects.

Most errors that ni-pnp might detect are handled transparently. If ni-pnp finds an

error from which it cannot recover, it displays a message and describes the best method

for fixing the problem.

Some possible problems that ni-pnp might report include modules with unassigned

resources and modules for which resource conflicts exist. If ni-pnp encounters a

module with no assigned resources, it displays the following message:

This interface has no assigned resources.

If you receive this message, you must run the GPIB software configuration utility and

assign resources to the module. If ni-pnp detects an I/O address conflict, it displays the

following message:

I/O Address Conflict.

If you receive this message, you must run the GPIB software configuration utility and

change the base I/O address for the module.

You can run ni-pnp in a verbose output mode. In this mode, ni-pnp displays more

information about each interface, including its assigned resources. To run ni-pnp in

verbose mode, change to the directory which contains ni-pnp.exe. This is the root of

the boot drive (usually C:\). Run ni-pnp with the verbose output flag by typing

ni-pnp /v.

A different, more serious error can also occur on systems that are not Plug and Play

ready. Because ni-pnp must assign resources to the modules, it must first perform the

Plug and Play ISA isolation sequence. The isolation sequence is a method by which all

Plug and Play modules can be detected. It is possible, although rare, that this isolation

sequence could lock up your system. If this occurs, restart your system. ni-pnp then

detects that your system was locked up and displays an error message describing the

problem. ni-pnp can enter a fail-safe detection mode in which it records each I/O port

before testing that port. If your system locks up while testing a port in this mode,