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Have you got any upgrade woes?

Since I don't really know what's causing the problems I'm seeing on a customer system, I don't want to post this in the regular forums or submit a bug report until I do.

 

But....I am curious to hear if anyone else has experienced any problems with upgrading from Windows XP to Windows 7. 

 

I have a rather large project that uses the NI-DNET drivers that I recently tried to upgrade both the OS and LabVIEW version on. 

 

Everything ran just fine in simulation on several different computers.  The code itself migrated well, and I didn't expect any problems. 

 

But I didn't even get halfway back to the office when I left the site after the PC swap.  The first problem was a stop button that didn't seem to work.  Then other intermittent IO problems appeared. 

 

A look online showed that the NI-DNET driver I was using wasn't compatible with Windows 7 (Although it was released with the 2010 SSP)   But there was a newer driver available online that was compatible. 

 

I updated the driver and hoped that my problems were over.  This morning ( Ah Monday... ) I learned things were actually getting worse. 

 

So today will be lots of driving and putting everything back the way it was. 

 

To me, it seems like the problem is with the NI-DNET drivers.  IO commands aren't always getting sent to the actual hardware, and it seems that some states are being misreported as well.  ( Things showing off when they're really still running ) 

 

If anyone has migrated code using the NI-DNET drivers to either Windows 7 or LabVIEW 2009 or 2010, I'd really like to hear about it.  Maybe compare hardware even.  I'd really like to know whether to keep trying with this one, or just go back to the old version and park it there. 

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Patrick Allen: FunctionalityUnlimited.ca
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Hi Patrick,

 

That sounds like a really bad monday for you. I am really sorry.

Let me ask you some questions about ypour upgrade approach.

So it seems you started from scratch with a new OS and a new LV + drivers, right? or did you update an older OS with Windows 7?

What is your current LV version and DNET driver?

I have no indication that our last release (1.6.5) has any kind of problem. So far you are the first. 😉

Controls not updating and messages that do not get transmitted could be related to the driver of course but it could be related to LV execution as well.

I guess this whole application is VI bsed and you did a mass compile for the whole setup before opening it with the newer LV version?

Is it possible that LV 7 is now taking more memory from the PCs RAM compared to XP and that may cause performance issues?

If you could bring some light into this whole update or upgrade scenario that would be helpful.

 

DirkW

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Hi Dirk,

 

Thanks for your reply.

 

I did indeed start from scratch with a new Dell Vostro desktop PC, Windows Professional 7, and the SSP disks from 2010 2nd Quarter.  ( This was the LabVIEW 2009 SP1 release )

 

This has now been replaced with Windows SP3 as the Operating System and LabVIEW 8.6 as the development environment.   The DNET driver was also downgraded back to 1.6.2 which is the one they have been using successfully for a couple of years.

 

The new PC was purchased to allow the original PC to become a backup.  It seemed like a good time to try and update everything as well.  But very soon after the new system was in place, operators noticed that the equipment was not always shutting down when it was supposed to.  This was something they had never reported with the old system.  It was also a huge financial and safety concern.  If a bunch of soy beans end up mixing with beans they aren't supposed to, then tens of thousands of kilograms could become contaminated and possible unsaleable. 

 

Due to this being the plant's busiest time of year, there isn't time to try and figure out what might be causing the problem.   

 

Windows 7 is likely using more ram than XP was.  But this is on a brand new PC with 3G of ram.  So that really shouldn't be an issue. 

 

The software itself ran perfectly in simulation mode.  I was really surprised that things didn't work once I found the updated DNET driver.

 

If I had to guess, I would think that there is some kind of hiccup with the DNET drivers and Windows 7.  But because it appeared to be intermittent, it's impossible to say for sure.  Historically, I always had problems with new operating systems and Allen Bradley (Rockwell) software. 

 

I'm still not completely familiar ( or comfortable ) with Windows 7, and I've yet to use it on any production machine. 

 

I would still like to eventually bring the code into LabVIEW 2010.  But we will probably not be using Windows 7.

 

 

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Patrick Allen: FunctionalityUnlimited.ca
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If I had to hazard a guess, based on past experience, I would point at the AB/Rockwell stuff. A couple of years ago, when I was doing a proof of concept project talking to some AB hardware I had their support people tell me that some serial adapter they had was only tested on Win95!!! I have had a few conversations with them in the last few years and haven't had a feeling of confidence in their answers regarding Windows products and theirs. I haven't done anything with 2009/2010 and their stuff so I can't rule that out, but I have had some interesting "issues" with the AB/R stuff and Windows.

Putnam
Certified LabVIEW Developer

Senior Test Engineer North Shore Technology, Inc.
Currently using LV 2012-LabVIEW 2018, RT8.5


LabVIEW Champion



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