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There may be a problem installing LabVIEW 2017 "on top of" earlier versions

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I'm working with NI Support to document what appears to be a flaw in the installation of LabVIEW 2017 on a Windows 10 PC that also has LabVIEW 2016 installed.  In response to an earlier post on this Forum asking why MAX wasn't working with LabVIEW 2017, I (naively) thought that the Original Poster "must have done something wrong", or "didn't download the correct software", but I was wrong!

 

I've got the current Software Bundle "stick" for both Fall 2016 (LabVIEW 2016) and Spring 2017 (LabVIEW 2017/LabVIEW NXG).  I've been doing a lot of work with LabVIEW 2016 and wanted to "cautiously" test LabVIEW 2017, so I'd only installed it on my Laptop, used mostly at home.  So I brought the laptop to work, plugged in a USB-6002, and ... MAX didn't work!  After a half hour of fussing, I created a Support Ticket, then went over my options with a very helpful NI AE.  We tried lots of things, none of which worked.  But since I "only" had those two versions of LabVIEW on my laptop, I volunteered to Uninstall and Reinstall (it only takes 2-3 hours, right?).

 

Didn't help.  More consults.  I did it again, testing at every step.  LabVIEW 2016 installs fine, there are about 16-18 NI Services running when it finishes, and MAX works.  LabVIEW 2017 kills about half the Services (and doesn't bring them back), and MAX does not work.

 

More testing.  On the same machine, if I (again) uninstall everything LabVIEW (including removing the LabVIEW Files and Folders) and do only an Install of 2017, we end up with 18 Services running, and MAX is only partly disabled (the pane on the right, where it shows the current Host, i.e. My Computer, properties, is non-functional, but the USB-6002 shows up on the left, along with my laptop's Camera and a TCP/IP camera nearby.

 

I'm currently writing this up (my AE is not in today, but he'll have it on Monday).  I've managed to reproduce it on a single Dell Laptop running Windows 10, x64, showing (a) LabVIEW 2016 (even when "on top of" earlier LabVIEW versions) runs fine, (b) LabVIEW 2017, when installed as the only LabVIEW version, seems to work, but MAX seems to have a few problems, and (c) LabVIEW 2017 "on top of" LabVIEW 2016 has a largely non-functional MAX.

 

I think this is an "unintended feature" (hmm, what 3-letter word means the same thing?).

 

Bob Schor

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Is this specific to installation via the "stick" you mentioned? I'm also using a Dell Laptop, running Windows 10 x64, and have installed (at present) LabVIEW 2016, 2017 and the NXG beta (although I haven't used it enough to say if its working as intended).

 

My MAX version is 17.0.0f0 and appears to be working - yesterday I used it to demonstrate how to create a DAQmx Task as a comparison with the NXG version and I was able to place it on a 2017 block diagram. I didn't run the task, because I didn't have hardware to hand, but it looked like it should have worked.

 

I have 24 services running that begin with NI, although at least 3 are related to OPC and my guess is some of the others might be related to other toolkits that perhaps aren't on the "stick" you mentioned.

 

My installation process was just to download the installer for 2017, then run the installation. I saved the files so that I could copy them to another computer later (although was disappointed that the choices I made weren't saved somehow - I accidentally picked slightly different options on the second computer and it then began downloading more things).

 

As I recall, I installed DAQmx 17.0.0 after LabVIEW, and since then the update service has updated to 17.1.0. I don't think I have installed any other 2017 toolkits/packages yet.


GCentral
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@cbutcher wrote:

Is this specific to installation via the "stick" you mentioned? I'm also using a Dell Laptop, running Windows 10 x64, and have installed (at present) LabVIEW 2016, 2017 and the NXG beta (although I haven't used it enough to say if its working as intended).

 


You raise a very good/interesting point.  When I was discussing this issue with NI Support, I was careful to mention that I was working from a "known installation point", namely the USB Key that contained the 2017 Software Bundle.  I assumed that the software on the stick was the same as the software downloadable on a module-by-module, toolkit-by-toolkit basis, would be the same.  I also very carefully documented my Installation steps, including at which steps NI Services "disappeared".

One thing that seems to be (in my hands, anyway) critical is that both LabVIEW 2016 and LabVIEW 2017 run fine on my PC if they are the only version installed, but LabVIEW 2017 installed "on top of" LabVIEW 2016 causes MAX to fail.  Indeed, even when I installed LabVIEW 2017 solo on this PC, MAX wasn't quite right, as shown below.

 

I can think of a few possibilities (and there are probably more) why I'm having a "2017 problem" and others are not.

  • I'm installing from the Spring 2017 Software Bundle, which is subtly different from installations from the Web.  This seems unlikely to me, but certainly something that NI Support could check out.
  • I'm installing LabVIEW 32-bit + Vision Development Module (similar to installations from 2012 on).  Maybe Vision is "clouding things up".  Seems unlikely, but I've documented what I did so that NI can try to reproduce and diagnose what is going on.
  • There's something really flakey with my hardware.  Again, that seems unlikely, as it is a standard Dell machine, plus there have been other reports on the Forums about problems with MAX 2017 (which led to my trying this myself), so there must be something there ...
  • Maybe this is a "Windows 10" thing.  Microsoft keeps "improving" Windows 10.  First, there was Windows 10, then there was Windows 10.1 (Anniversary), now there's Windows 10.2 (Creators).  [Note -- I'm being facetious with the numbers, of course].  I just checked -- my Laptop is running Creators (I have no idea when it updated itself to this new edition).

I do have a "Day Job", and do have a project being developed in LabVIEW 2016 that needs LabVIEW, Vision, and MAX all working, so I'm going to be handing this back to NI, with fairly complete documentation of my findings, in hopes they can find and/or understand the issue, and possibly even fix it.

MAX_2017a.png

This, incidentally, is what MAX shows on my Laptop after installing LabVIEW 2017 alone (having done as complete an uninstall of LabVIEW as practical, including deleting all LabVIEW folders from Program Files, Program Files (x86), and Program Data).  Note that it shows both a USB 6002, with its proper Driver, and my Laptop's Camera (I installed the Vision Acquisition drivers), but the pane on the right doesn't show anything.  On the "Bad MAX" (seen on the 2016+2017 install), the pane on the right showed some information + an error message about a timeout, but the Devices didn't show the Cameras, and the USB 6002 driver never loaded, leaving it with a VISA designation.

 

Bob Schor

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Bob_Schor wrote: 

I can think of a few possibilities (and there are probably more) why I'm having a "2017 problem" and others are not.

  • I'm installing from the Spring 2017 Software Bundle, which is subtly different from installations from the Web.  This seems unlikely to me, but certainly something that NI Support could check out.
  • I'm installing LabVIEW 32-bit + Vision Development Module (similar to installations from 2012 on).  Maybe Vision is "clouding things up".  Seems unlikely, but I've documented what I did so that NI can try to reproduce and diagnose what is going on.
  • There's something really flakey with my hardware.  Again, that seems unlikely, as it is a standard Dell machine, plus there have been other reports on the Forums about problems with MAX 2017 (which led to my trying this myself), so there must be something there ...
  • Maybe this is a "Windows 10" thing.  Microsoft keeps "improving" Windows 10.  First, there was Windows 10, then there was Windows 10.1 (Anniversary), now there's Windows 10.2 (Creators).  [Note -- I'm being facetious with the numbers, of course].  I just checked -- my Laptop is running Creators (I have no idea when it updated itself to this new edition).

Following up on this with some additional information about my system:

  • I don't believe I installed the Vision toolkit, although it does appear on the splash screen when LabVIEW loads. The Licence Manager lists the following as activated in 2017 LabVIEW:
    • Development System
    • Advanced Signal Processing Toolkit
    • Application Builder
    • Control Design and Simulation Module 2017*
    • Database Connectivity Toolkit
    • DataFinder Toolkit
    • Datalogging and Supervisory Control Module
    • Digital Filter Design Toolkit*
    • Mathscript RT Module
    • Real-Time Module*
    • Report Generation Toolkit for Microsoft Office
    • Robotics Module*
    • Statechart Module*
    • Unit Test Framework Toolkit
    • VI Analyzer Toolkit
  • The items with an asterisk have 73 days remaining at present. This appears to be because they are licensed with a beta key. I'll look into switching that for a real key but I don't seem to be able to unregister or register these items, so probably they're not currently installed.
  • I'm also running what I believe to be the Creators Update on Windows 10 Pro. Version is 1703 and Build is 15063.413. I can't swear to it, but I think the update arrived on this computer before I installed LabVIEW 2017.

GCentral
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Is there an option not to install LV NXG?  Maybe you can try that.

Bill
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(Mid-Level minion.)
My support system ensures that I don't look totally incompetent.
Proud to say that I've progressed beyond knowing just enough to be dangerous. I now know enough to know that I have no clue about anything at all.
Humble author of the CLAD Nugget.
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There is such an option, and it is the one I chose (i.e. "Only install 2017").  This works "mostly" if the only version (most Services are installed), fails if 2016 is installed first (tried only on a single machine, but tried multiple times).

 

BS

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Followup on "stand-alone installation" of LabVIEW 2017 on my laptop.  Not sure what has happened (I've used the Laptop for doing some text writing, for installing/updating VMWare (to do more LabVIEW Tests), but have not done anything "LabVIEW" with the main machine.  Today, however, I wanted to update the "LabVIEW Installation Woes" document I was writing, so I tried (again) to open MAX and show its "poor behavior" under LabVIEW 2017.

 

Ha!  Fooled me!  Unlike the post two days ago, this time MAX looked really good, had a fully populated right-hand pane, found connected (and formerly-connected) USB devices and Cameras, ...

 

This is really weird -- not even the Bugs are consistent!

 

Bob Schor

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Wow!!!

 

Bill
CLD
(Mid-Level minion.)
My support system ensures that I don't look totally incompetent.
Proud to say that I've progressed beyond knowing just enough to be dangerous. I now know enough to know that I have no clue about anything at all.
Humble author of the CLAD Nugget.
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I just brought in my 6008 to hook up and test this on the client PC.  after installing 2016 and updating to 2017 + NXG1.0.

 

NOTE: the machine never had a BETA!

 

I have no issues  Other than the CCT isn't backsaving right again


"Should be" isn't "Is" -Jay
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Well, I just tried (on a machine at work that our Students use) installing 2017 "on top of" 2016.  The PC was a Dell Inspiron 9020 running Windows 7 Enterprise.  I'd previously installed LabVIEW 2016 + NI Vision (but not LabVIEW RT), and I just tried installing LabVIEW 2017 (basic LabVIEW + NI Vision).  Aside from the fact that not all of the Drivers appeared to install, this installation appeared to work perfectly (though I didn't get a chance to test if MAX could run a USB-6002).

 

What I really need to do is to get my hands on another Windows 10 machine and try my dual install ...

 

BS

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