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Unknown System Devices Appear in Device Manager after Recovering the OS with an NI 8171 Series Embedded Controller

Hardware: PXI/CompactPCI>>Controllers>>PXI-8176

Problem: I re-imaged my NI 8176 hard drive using the OS in the images directory, and I ran the driver installers in C:\IMAGES\PXI-8171\ directories. On reboot, I check the Device Manager and there are still unknown system devices listed. What are these devices, and how do I properly configure them?

Solution: Commonly, these unknown system devices are the Watchdog Timer and the Trigger Router. The .inf files for these drivers are probably not included in the Images directory, but they are attached at the bottom of this document. The files are NIWD.INF (Watchdog Timer Driver) and NITRIGRT.INF (Trigger Router Driver). We recommend placing these in the C:\IMAGES\PXI-8171\ directory. These drivers can be lined up with the proper hardware in the following way:

  1. Open Device Manager, right click on the device, and choose Properties.

  2. Choose the Driver tab and click on Update Driver.

  3. Choose Next to upgrade the device driver. Then click Next with "Search for a suitable driver for my device" selected.

  4. Choose "Specify a location" and click Next.

  5. Click on Browse and move to the location of the appropriate .inf file. Some trial and error may be required, as the unknown devices probably are not labeled. In other words, you may match the .inf file to the wrong device.

  6. Press OK, and finish the menus out to install your driver. If the install is unsuccessful, the other .inf file is probably the appropriate driver for that device.


Occasionally another unknown device will be listed, PCI Simple Communications Controller. This device is actually the GPIB board embedded within the controller. This driver can be aligned with the GPIB hardware in the following way:

  1. Open Device Manager and delete PCI Simple Communications Controller. Then go to Action>>Scan for hardware changes and the driver should automatically associate itself with the GPIB hardware. If this doesn't work and the PCI Simple Communications Controller is still listed, this reflects that the GPIB driver, NI-488.2, was either not installed correctly or not installed at all.

  2. Under Add/Remove Programs from the Control Panel, check to see if the GPIB driver NI-488.2 has been installed. If the driver is listed, select to remove the driver.

  3. Re-install the GPIB driver. You can install the driver from the LabVIEW installation CDs, the images folder or from the web with the link below.

  4. Re-boot the controller.


    Related Links: Software Downloads


    Attachments:


    NITRIGRT.INFNIWD.INF

    Report Date: 01/16/2002
    Last Updated: 09/05/2002
    Document ID: 2HFB74UK

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