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PC Fails to Boot or VXI-8360T Doesn't Show Up in MAX

Primary Software: Driver Software>>NI-VXI/VISA
Primary Software Version: 3.5.1
Primary Software Fixed Version: 3.5.2
Secondary Software: N/A
Hardware: VXI/VME/MXI>>VXI Interfaces>>VXI-ExpressCard-8360T, VXI/VME/MXI>>VXI Interfaces>>VXI-8360T, VXI/VME/MXI>>VXI Interfaces>>VXI-PCIe-8362, VXI/VME/MXI>>VXI Interfaces>>VXI-PCIe-8361T, VXI/VME/MXI>>VXI Interfaces>>VXI-PCIe-8362T, VXI/VME/MXI>>VXI Interfaces>>VXI-PCIe-8361

Problem:
My PC will not boot when using a VXI-8360T to control a VXI chassis or the VXI-8360T does not show up in Device Manager or MAX.

 



Solution:
There is a specific setting in Measurement and Automation Explorer (MAX) for the VXI-8360T that requests the BIOS of the host machine to allocate a user window at a specified size. VXI-3.5.1 contains common configurations that have incorrectly set the default setting for the User Window Size to 128MB instead of 512kB. See Figure 1 for details on the location of this setting.

Figure 1 - User Window Size Setting Location in MAX


This allocation request gets doubled by the driver for the MITE and host memory and may be too large of a request to be handled by the BIOS of the host machine. This may either cause the system to fail to boot, or the system may boot to the operating system but the VXI MXI Express will fail to show up in Device Manager and MAX.
 
A VXI-8360T is susceptible to this problem if a default common configuration supplied by the VXI-3.5.1 driver is used as shown in Figure 2:

Figure 2 - VXI-3.5.1 Common Configurations for the VXI-8360T.


There are a few options available to resolve the issue:

Solution 1: Upgrade to VXI-3.5.2 (recommended)
VXI 3.5.2 contains the corrected common configuration files that will be available for use when the driver is installed. Follow these steps to correct the common configuration files and fix the current configuration to allow the host system to boot properly:

  1. If the host machine is not booting, first follow Solution 2. This will make the host machine bootable again.
  2. Install VXI-3.5.2. This will install common configuration files that have the correct user window size settings.
  3. Configure the VXI-8360T in MAX as desired
  4. Apply changes and reboot as necessary

Solution 2: Load factory default settings (recommended if 3.5.2 update is not an option)
Loading the factory default settings on the controller can resolve this issue. It contains the proper configuration settings that will be loaded by the driver and can be saved as a common configuration file. Refer to “How to Fix an Invalid EEPROM Configuration” section of the VXI-MXI-Express User manual found in the Related Links section for instructions on how to load the factory default settings.

Once the factory default settings have been loaded.

  1. Navigate to the controller in MAX.
  2. Load the desired configuration for the controller.
  3. Ensure that the User Window Size is set to 512 kB.
  4. Restart the controller to apply changes.
Note: This solution temporarily fixes the problem, but it does not prevent it from happening again if VXI 3.5.1 is reinstalled on the host PC. The corrected common configuration files will be replaced with the default files that install with 3.5.1 and will contain the incorrect settings. Only installing VXI 3.5.2 or later will ensure that corrected configuration files are installed aside from loading the factory default settings again.

Solution 3: Change the Setting Manually (not recommended)
This solution can be a challenge because a different host system that can boot with the incorrect user window size setting must be located. For this reason, this option is not recommended as this can become an inconvenience.

  1. Locate a host machine that can properly detect the VXI-8360T in MAX.
  2. Right-Click on the VXI System using the VXI-8360T in MAX and go to Properties.
  3. Select Hardware Configuration
  4. Choose the PCI tab and locate the User Window Size setting as shown in Figure 1.
  5. Change the User Window Size from 128 MB to 512 MB.
  6. Apply the changes and reboot the VXI-8360T.
Note: This solution temporarily fixes the problem, but it does not prevent it from happening again if VXI 3.5.1 is reinstalled on the host PC. The common configuration files will contain the incorrect setting by default. Install VXI 3.5.2 to resolve this issue.




Related Links:

VXI-MXI-Express Series User Manual



Attachments:

12-09-2.bmp
12-09-kb.bmp

Report Date: 08/20/2008
Last Updated: 12/12/2008
Document ID: 4OJG1HSK

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