Instrument Control (GPIB, Serial, VISA, IVI)

cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Not enough resources in Windows XP for a set of NI cards that work in Windows 2000?

I have an automation application currently running on a W2k workstation that requires the following hardware:
2 Ethernet ports (one motherboard, one in a PCI slot)
2 native serial ports
1 NI PCI RS-232/8 multiport serial card
1 NI PCI RS-485/4 multiport serial card
1 NI PCI-MXI-2 MXI interface (connected to a VXI Flexframe)
1 NI PCI-GPIB interface

I recently (due to a workstation crash) attempted to install the same configuration on a Windows XP workstation.
The machine itself had a PCIX bus, so the PCI cards were installed in a PCI expansion chassis.

I installed all the drivers, and then installed the cards one at a time.
XP always failed to accept the final card installe
d (regardless of installation order), saying there were insufficient resources available.

I thought one of the the whole points of PCI was efficient sharing of interrupts, etc.

What do I need to do to get this to work in Windows XP? The writing is already on the wall that I am expected to move off of the Windows 2000 system in the reasonably near future.
Kevin Roche
Advisory Engineer/Scientist
Spintronics and Magnetoelectronics group
IBM Research Almaden
0 Kudos
Message 1 of 2
(3,136 Views)
Hello Kevin,
Have you tried the serial boards on their own (without the MXI and GPIB cards)? They would be my first suspect as they are I/O space driven, and Windows often gives PCI-to-PCI bridges a limited I/O space allocation.

You are correct that PCI is supposed to handle resources much better than the old days of ISA. However, in the spirit of helping folks smooth the transition from ISA to PCI, I/O space was left in the PCI specification (headache to follow). Using significant amounts of resources behind a PCI-to-PCI bridge can be challenging. Interrupts are generally not the problem, as they should be shared, but memory space and particularly I/O space are greatly reduced when behind a PCI-to-PCI bridge (this is handled first by the BIOS, and second by the OS). The Microsoft whitepaper "PCI-to-PCI Bridges and CardBus Controllers on Windows" does an excellent job of explaining this issue.

If the serial boards work fine, my next thought would be MXI-2. If it's "VXI User Window Size" is set too big, there may not be enough memory space. Try booting with fewer cards and configuring a smaller Window.

Other solutions might include adding a second PCI-to-PCI expansion card/chassis and splitting your cards between the two, but this option is quite costly.

As a side note, many newer National Instruments products will function in your PCI-X slots -- look for Universal or 3.3V connector in the specifications or 2 notches on the PCI edge connector. You can find more information by searching our KnowledgeBase for the articles 2N2DBOH5 "Will a National Instruments PCI Board Work in a PCI-X Bus?",
2K997NV6 "Will NationaI Instruments PCI Devices Work in 64-bit PCI Slots?", and 28F8MHEC "Can I Use a PCI-GPIB Card in a Computer With 3.3V PCI Slots?". Also, our new "High-Performance Plug-In Serial Interfaces" support memory rather than I/O space, so if your problem is constrained I/O space resources, these should solve the problem. Perhaps this issue will diminish when Microsoft implements "PCI Multi-level Rebalance in Windows Longhorn"

I hope that you find this information helpful. Let us know if you have any further details or questions about this issue.

Sincerely,
Jeremiah
Staff Product Support Engineer -- Systems Software
National Instruments -- http://www.ni.com

0 Kudos
Message 2 of 2
(3,136 Views)