LabView 2014 has to search for many files on startup

[jeepers52004]

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@altenbach wrote:

@jeepers52004 wrote:

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Also, this is the only version of LabView ever installed on this machine so it really can't be an old shortcut.

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Did you try to repair the LabVIEW installation? (you said something about MAX. I am talking about the windows software control panel. I am not sure what you did in MAX to "repair")

Is this a site license or an individual license?

Are you running any unusual antivirus or other security software?

If you look in the NI license manager, what flavor of LabVIEW (base, full, pro, etc.) does it say you have activated?

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Yes.  I tried a software repair.  Going through the windows control panel or the software link in MAX produces the same result, a National Instruments management tool.  I've attached a screenshot.

This is an individual license.  There are a couple IS installed/managed security programs running including Viewfinity and BlueCoat.  These programs are on all of our computers and the other machines I've installed LabView on don't exhibit this condition.

We have the professional development system license.

[Bob_Schor]

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@jeepers52004 wrote:

I'll have to video the screen to capture exactly where it find each file because those locations disappear when the file is found and the next one is being searched for.

This laptop was used by an intern over the summer and LabView wasn't installed.  The laptop had the drive erased and a new image installed before deploying to our department.  We are the only users of LabView and owners of the purchased software (physical media and license keys.)   So no other version of LabView has ever been installed, 99% certainty.

How can I diagnose if something failed when I installed Labview and/or how can I repair what's existing hopefully without uninstalling and reinstalling everything?

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I answer a post today here where I listed the Services that NI has running on my PC (which has LabVIEW, the Real Time Module, and Vision Acquisition installed).  Can you take a look at your Services (if you open the Windows Start button and search for Services, which has a Gear icon, clicking it will show you your active Services) and see if you have (most of) the Services running on my PC also running on yours?  Note that you might not need all of them.  

During the last month, I've repaired 4-6 LabVIEW 2014 and 2015 installations, and "rescued" mis-behaving LabVIEW installations.  If you decide to try this, start with the most recent version of LabVIEW.  Be warned -- you will need the installation media for this step (as the Repair process will say "Now insert the disk with ...").

Bob Schor

[jeepers52004]

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I answer a post today here where I listed the Services that NI has running on my PC (which has LabVIEW, the Real Time Module, and Vision Acquisition installed).  Can you take a look at your Services (if you open the Windows Start button and search for Services, which has a Gear icon, clicking it will show you your active Services) and see if you have (most of) the Services running on my PC also running on yours?  Note that you might not need all of them.  

During the last month, I've repaired 4-6 LabVIEW 2014 and 2015 installations, and "rescued" mis-behaving LabVIEW installations.  If you decide to try this, start with the most recent version of LabVIEW.  Be warned -- you will need the installation media for this step (as the Repair process will say "Now insert the disk with ...").

Bob Schor

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I have all those same services running except for NI Citadel 5 Service.  That service is not listed but maybe it's related to LabView 2015 and I'm running LabView 2014.

[Bob_Schor]

Yes, I think that's right (about Citadel 5, as I also have a Citadel 4 that I didn't list).  So the Good News is that your LabVIEW installation didn't "cripple" some part of LabVIEW (which, I'll grant, it should not do, but I've seen it happen too many times).  The Bad News is that your system is still misbehaving.  Sigh ...

BS

[apriltalksrobots]

Were you able to attempt to repair your version of LabVIEW? It sounds like that may fix the issue. 

[jeepers52004]

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@apriltalksrobots wrote:

Were you able to attempt to repair your version of LabVIEW? It sounds like that may fix the issue. 

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I attempted the repair process twice without any change.

I've since uninstalled everything NI and reinstalled today.  This seems to have fixed the issue with file searches.  Now I seem to be unable to access the remote panel on a cDAQ.  I've been down this road just before my LabView installation started exhibiting all the file searching issues and fixing that was a pain also.  I've confirmed with our IT department that they are not blocking any communications so looks like another thread on "server does not support remote panels" and another day lost to troubleshooting 😞

Am I the rare case with all these issues?  Mabye there's a tips and tricks page somewhere buring on the interweb that I need to find.

[billko]

I think you're the rare VIRGIN who never had the issue before this.  😉

[AustinManinTown]

I have seen this exact, or very similar problem, on an installation of LabVIEW 2015. I am teaching a LabVIEW Core 1 and 2 course this week. One of the students asked me for help as his LabVIEW installation was exhibiting strange behavior.

Sure enough when he started LabVIEW up popped the search window looking for VIs. We also discovered that launching the project template wizard caused a VI search window to appear. After further investigation it appears that any internal tools/utilities written in LabVIEW fail and cause a search window to be launched. I also noted that the built in library VIs (e.g. read and write delimited text file and express VIs) are missing from the palettes.

My suggested solution was to reinstall LabVIEW. We will see if it works. 

This is a first for me. It would be good to know how LabVIEW keeps track of the internal VIs it uses for the built in functionality.

[apriltalksrobots]

To provide a little insight: LabVIEW checks three main places when it looks for its internal VIs. It first checks the National Instruments folder (or the x86 one, depending on your system configuration). It then goes and checks the LabVIEW vi.lib, and then it goes and checks the user.lib. If the VI is part of a project, it will also check the location of the top level VI (topvi) and the location of the last VI it found (foundvi). If it cannot find the VI in any of these locations, it will then prompt you to manually locate the VI.

http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/allkb/3E58FDCF8744F86D86256AAF0078274C

You can change this by setting the order of directories LabVIEW searches.

http://zone.ni.com/reference/en-XX/help/371361E-01/lvhowto/setting_path_options/

You can also add a new directory to the VI Search Path.

http://zone.ni.com/reference/en-XX/help/371361E-01/lvhowto/adding_dir_vi_srch_path/

Hope this helps!

[AustinManinTown]

I appreciate your response aprillest.

The irony is that the Tools>Options dialog is written in LabVIEW and it won't open on the corrupted installation. This, of course, means we can't check the search paths. 

I think a reinstallation of LabVIEW is the best solution at this stage.