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Instrument Control (GPIB, Serial, VISA, IVI)

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why does USB-GPIB disconnect during use?

I am having a problem with the USB-GPIB hardware.
I use this to connect an XP PC to a IC Device handler.The handler will tell the PC when it has parts ready to test and then the PC will test the parts and send the results back to the handler.

This works great for a while, Then the GPIB communications will fail. If you look at the USB-GPIB cable box , the green LED will be out when the problem happens and when all is good the green led is on steady.

To fix this problem I have to disconnect the USB side of the USB-GPIB and then reconnect it.

Any Ideas on what is going on?

Thanks
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Message 1 of 16
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Hello,
Make sure all your power saving modes are turned off on your computer. Also, check to see you have the current driver version CurrentGPIB driver versions
Also, try your GPIB hardware on a different computer with a totally different OS and see if you observe the same behavior.
Let me know if this works out for you. If not, we will try and troubleshoot it in a different way.
Good luck and have a great day!
Koninika.
National Instruments.
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Message 2 of 16
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Hi
I have driver version 2.1, which I think is the latest version. I have this problem on DELL GX260's but not on Dell GX270's. The dell system have the latest BIOSES on them A06. Some of my customers say that upgrading the PC bios made this problem go away. But I still have some customer's who have this problem.

What more information do you need? What else can I look for?



Thanks,

Mike
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Message 3 of 16
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Hello Mike,
Could you tell me what version of USB you are using? Also is it USB A or USB B? Also while installing the latest driver version, are you installing the USB support for Windows?
These answers will help me assist you further.
Thanks.
Good luck.
Koninika
National Instruments.
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Message 4 of 16
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WE are using usb-a. I am not installing the USB support for windows since XP has USB already. The PC have usb2.0.

Rgds,
Mike
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Message 5 of 16
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Hello Mike,
Is it doing anything when the USB disconnects or is it idle? Please try it out on a different machine just so that we can discard the possibility of the USB port of that particular machine causing some problems.
Good luck and have a great day!
Koninika
National Instruments.
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Message 6 of 16
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Koninika,

This happens on three different machines. So I do not think it is a USB defective HW issue.

This happens when the machine is idle and is not noticed until the system is started up again. When idle the system is powered up and just sits waiting.

Thanks Mike
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Message 7 of 16
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I am also having the same problem. Everytime I reboot my system it does not pick up the USB-GPIB device. I also have to disconnect it and reconnect it to be found by my PC. It also "self disconnects" when media player is running.
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This might or might not be related to a problem I am faced with:
We have a self-made test stand for medical devices, that also have USB ports. During the test process those devices are individualised with an USB serial number, to be re-opened afterwards with their serial number. After altering the USB EEPROM I have to disconnect the device in order to re-read its changed USB-EEPROM.
A colleague of mine has a little self-made config tool that can handle this by calling an 'USB-reset'-function. Maybe you need something similar.

If your prob is not solved until next week, I'll update this statement after having consulted that colleague.

Greetings from Germany!
-- Uwe
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Message 9 of 16
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Needless to say, this is not the normal (or expected) behavior of the GPIB-USB-A or -B. The current version of the driver is NI-488.2 v2.3, available here:

http://digital.ni.com/softlib.nsf/websearch/74B5B3FF1122C90F86256F4F00781783?opendocument&node=132070_US

Give that a try (as long as you have a good clean install of 2.1, you can upgrade it, but probably the best solution is to uninstall the older driver first) and create a new topic if anyone is still having problems (this one appears to be from earlier this year).

Scott B.
GPIB
National Instruments
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Message 10 of 16
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