Hi,
The first thing you can do to determine if you're instrument is working correctly is doing a simple query in MAX (measurement and automation explorer). The GPIB interface should appear in MAX under "device and interfaces". Right-click on it and select "scan for instruments". If MAX detects you're instrument it means that it was able to communicate with it. You can them right click on the instrument's entry and select "communicate with instrument". The default query is the identification command "*IDN?".
All this tests allow you to verify that the communication is working properly. The instrument has to be 488.2 compliant to recognized the *IDN? command (it probablyis).
Once the communication is verified, you can use the LabVIEW examples to send
commands to the instrument. The syntax of the commands sent is instrument specific, so you should check you instrument's user manual to determine which commands to send and how to send them (ordering, format, etc).
Check the tutorials and example in the GPIB support site for more info:
http://www.ni.com/support/gpibsupp.htm
DiegoF.