National Instruments 321042A-01 Manuale Utente

                                                                                                                                                   

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:

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:

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,