You can just delete the sub-VI; SR830s respond to remote queries irrespective of whether the front panel is in remote mode or not. If you make that change and put probes on the data buffer and error outputs of the VISA Read command after the *IDN? query, what do you get?Are there any errors, and do you get the proper identity string? The front-panel indicator will report an error because it's testing for the presence of the 34401, so that's why you need to probe the wires directly.
As I already said, the only thing you need is the VISA property node. No subVI, no setting of the handshaking. Your previous version looked correct. Did you try that with I/O Trace?
By default 'Termination Character Enable' is false, and hence the read will continue until the timeout occurs. Try adding another row to that property node, set it to Write and choose Message Settings->TermChar Enable, and then wire in a True boolean constant.
