I have had the .dll error before, and it has been difficult to repair short of performing a complete uninstall/reinstall.
The past few days I have installed the LVLM 2012/MCT setup on a variety of PC's. I have come up with an approach that has been 100% successful so far. Superstition or science...who knows?
It takes some patience to get everything installed. I check up on things every step of the way, restart the PC quite often, make sure updates are done along the way, and even have an NXT on hand to perform a 'firmware update' mid-way through.
Here's the approach that I have used: (remember to turn off the Windows Firewall, and pause your antivirus during the install)
- First install LabVIEW for Lego Mindstorms from the DVD (this installs the NXT Module too):
- Install the LVLM 2012 from the DVD using the s/n provided; you will need your NI account information (name/password); choose auto-activate over internet.
- RESTART the PC;
- Start LV and 'Help-Activate LabVIEW Components' - launch the license manager and confirm that the 'Development System' shows both 'LVLM 2012', and 'Full Development System' as solid green boxes. If one is not solid, then rt-click on the box and 'Activate'; also take a note of the 'Help-About..' for the '...NXT Module' and '...LabVIEW' [as of 11/10/13 'NXT Module SP1' and 'LabVIEW 12.0.1f??'];
- EXIT LabVIEW.
- Make sure that all updates are installed before attempting to install the MCT (toolkit):
- You will need to run the 'NI Update Service' program if it is not already being shown to you automatically.
- Make sure that the 'NI Update Service' software is up-to-date, before applying any updates offered [as of 11/12/13 this is Version 2.2.5.70]. (I have had to do this on the Win7 installs, but not the Win8 so far.)
- Install all updates offered by the 'NI Update Service' program;
- RESTART the PC.
- Confirm the updates were successful and perform a firmware update on a Mindstorm NXT brick:
- Start LVLM and use 'Help-About...' to confirm that the updates occurred. [as of 11/10/13 'NXT Module SP1 f2' and 'LabVIEW 12.0.1f5'];
- Open a Blank Project and connect to an NXT using a USB cord; 'update firmware' from the 'NXT Terminal' - at this time I sometimes noticed Windows 'bubbles' appearing in the lower right hand corner of the screen indicating that drivers were being installed and updated (a good sign);
- EXIT LabVIEW;
- Time to install the toolkit:
- Confirm that everything is ready for FTC....we'll even get the NXT loaded up with the required FCS files:
- Start LVLM and use 'Help-About...' to confirm that the updates occurred. [as of 11/10/13 'NXT Module SP1 f3' and 'LabVIEW 12.0.1f5' and now you will see an entry for 'Mindstorms Competition Toolkit' it must be MCT f1];
- Open a Blank Project and connect to an NXT using a USB cord; 'update firmware' from the 'NXT Terminal' (this should still work);
- One final step to get the tournament required files onto the NXT (if not loaded on by the firmware update):
- open a 'New vi' 'Target for Computer'; name it 'get my shell'
- go to the NXT I/O palette and choose 'Sound', change 'Tone' to 'Piano-Play Red Song' ;
- click on the RUN arrow (ie run in direct mode) "Can you name that tune?" ;
- the files 'Program Chooser', 'NXT Shell', and 'Samostat' will be loaded on;
- SAVE. You can run this vi in this manner every time you 'update firmware' or any time the files get deleted.
- EXIT LabVIEW.
I hope you find this helpful.
Edited to add Firewall/antivirus reminder
