Rf Mux PXI-2546 driver stops working when DAQ PXIe-6259 is used.

[erik.hellberg]

Hi, I am experiencing a very strange thing. I have a system with two 1065 chassis with about 15 different instruments fitted.

It was working fine and has done so for several years. Today the DAQ PXIe-6363 broke, so I tried to replace it with a spare PXIe-6259 DAQ. I started with just switching the spare daq in but then the computer crashed every time during the PXIe-6259 driver installation. So I thought I needed a driver update and installed DAQmx 15.1 (previous version was 14.5). This did not do any change. Computer still crashed constantly. Eventually I found out that if I remove the PXI-2546 Rfmux from the system the PXIe-6259 DAQ will install and work properly. But now the Rfmux PXI-2546 will not work when  the PXIe-6259 DAQ is fitted in the system. I can get the Rfmux to work if I take out the DAQ and vice-versa.

Why is it like this and what can I do to solve it?

I don't understand why a PXI-2546 Rfmux and a PXIe-6259 DAQ are interfering with one other.

/Erik

[antsundq]

Hi Erik, 

This is very strange behaviour and I see no appearent reason why the two cards can not run simultaneously. Have you narrowed it down to make sure that it is these two cards that causes the problem, e.g. by removing all other cards? I assume that you have the PXI card in one of the hybrid slots on the chassis. 

Could you clarify a little on the system, are you using and when does the crash occur? You said you get the crash when you install the drivers, but then you upgraded to a newer driver and it still crashes. Which system is crashing; is it one of the chassies or a controlling computer? What happens when it crashes, is there any error codes or messages? 

It sounds like a software corruption, and I would start by reinstalling the system to make sure that we are working with a clean system. 

/Anton

[erik.hellberg · Accepted solution]

Hi Anton, thanks for your response!

Yes it is very strange. I have narrowed it down to these two devices. I got blue screen during Windows driver installation. So I tried to first update the NI-DAQmx driver. That did not do any change.

Then I tried to roll-back the NI-DAQmx driver to an earlier version. Crashes stopped then but I could not get both devices to work simultaneously. In windows device manager it showed a problem for the PXI-2546 device under NI DAQ devices. I don't know why a mux is treated as daq device either. The problem description said "No free resources". So I could get the Rf mux to work if I unplugged the daq and vice versa.

For the last two days I have been reinstalling the system from scratch. I am not done yet because it takes so long time to do this but it seem to be ok now. But what a pain. I started with just installing the Rf Mux driver (Switch).

To do this I had to download almost 3GB! For a 2x 4x1 Mux driver. The Switch driver then installed some NI-DAQmx which I then had to update and download even more stuff.

I think NI has made it very complicated with the driver stuff. Instead of having these huge driver packages that supposed to cover everything it would be better with smaller device specific drivers that could be easily found on the web under each device.

Anyway I hope it should work ok now. I wonder what will happen when I get my repaired PXIe-6363 back. Should I plug it in or just don't bother because I could face the same problem again?

/Erik

[antsundq]

Hi Erik, 

I'm sorry that you had to go through all the struggle to download and reinstall. Hopefully this solved the problems, let's keep our fingers crossed. 

I am aware of the issue with the very hefty downloads and I can see the benefits of having individual drivers for each modulem, however this woud add a lot of complexity to managing, distributing and supporting the drivers. 

As I do not know the original cause of the software corruption, I can not give advice on whether to stick with the 6259 or change to the repaired 6363. I however think it is highly unlikely that you run into the same problems again, since this is not the normal behavior and ther is no reason for the cards not working together. 

/Anton