nipalk.sys blue screen

[Lexmark Fred]

Experience frequent crashes when running LabVIEW 6.1 on new P4 systems running Win 2k. Crashes are sometimes random, sometimes not. For instance, we can always crash computer by opening a LabVIEW program after waking the computer from a sleep state.

The blue screen we get says:
STOP: KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED (Error 0x0..01E) and the program/file referenced is "nipalk.sys".

Anyone have any ideas?

[Jeremiah Cox]

Greetings Lexmark Fred,
First I would like to restore your confidence regarding LabVIEW's stability. LabVIEW is not responsible for crashing your machine. As a user mode application, it can only cause a blue screen by exploiting an issue within the operating system or a driver. I suspect that the crash you are observing occurs when a VI is opened that uses a hardware driver that does not support power management. The currently shipping versions of NI-DAQ (6.9.3) and NI-488.2 (2.0) do not support power management features (NI-488.2 documents this in their readme <> and NI-DAQ explains how to disable Power Management in its readme <>). We are wo
rking to increase our level of power management support in upcoming releases of NI drivers.

In the interim:
One workaround is to disable standby and hibernate modes in your OS power management configuration as explained in the NI-DAQ readme linked above.
Another workaround that allows you to leave power management enabled is to (after waking from standby/hibernate mode, but before making use of any hardware by opening MAX or LabVIEW) open the device manager, delete (uninstall) all devices that make use of these hardware drivers, and then Refresh (Scan for Hardware Changes). After the devices are redetected, you should be able to use them normally.

If you continue to have crashes after disabling power management, then I would recommend contacting our Technical Support team at <> and select a contact method of phone or e-mail (whichever is more convenient for you). They will be most capable at solving this type of issue.

Sincerely,
Jeremiah Cox
Platf
orm Software Product Support Engineer
National Instruments

[j1024]

This problem appears to be hardware / driver and not software (as you pointed out). I'm using VB and calling scan. a few comments:
1) The driver works until it is put into sleep mode. This can happen if you close the cover on a laptop or leave it alone for a while. The real problem occurs when you are taking data and leave it alone for a while or close the cover. This means you have to watch your computer like a hawk. This is not a good thing.
2) My software works after a "sleep" but the card does not read data. I use the status call (Async mode)to tell when the scan has acquired all of the samples. I scan 10 to 20 times without testing then scan and read the number of samples acquired to be sure it above 0. When the card is not reading, the number of sample
s remains zero.
3) So far, rebooting solves the problem (until the next sleep).
4) Turning of the hybronate allows me to close the cover, but I am still having problems when the screen times out and goes to sleep.
5) I use the Meas & Auto Explorer to test the card. I also test to see I have data. Knowing the card is asleep is important - you know there is not a software problem.

[Paradise]

We are experiencing a similar crash using NI-DAQ 6.9.1 and a 6025E board on an NT 4.0 SP6 system. We have tried the 6.9.3 drivers and experienced the same result. I think that the NI-PAL version remained the same regardless of the NI-DAQ version installed. I don't believe the "sleep" issue is relevant here. Any other possiblilities? What is the appropriate version of NI-PAL for 6.9.1, 6.9.3?

I would appreciate a response, our client is a fairly large user of NI products and this is a critical machine vision application.

Thank You,
Peter R. Puccini
CEO
Paradise Cove Systems, Inc.

[Paradise]

Should have included the crash info in the last email-

IRQL_Not_less_or-equal_XXX Address F2CFF8CF has base at 80100000-NIPALK.SYS

Thanks,

Pete Puccini

[Jeremiah Cox]

Howdy j1024,
You should find significantly improved power management handling if you either upgrade to NI-DAQ 7.x (visit http://www.ni.com/downloads/) or if you contact National Instruments Technical Support at http://www.ni.com/ask and request a power management patch for NI-DAQ 6.9.x.

Sincerely,
Jeremiah Cox
Staff Product Support Engineer -- Platform Services
National Instruments -- http://www.ni.com

[Jeremiah Cox]

Hello Pete,
I would recommend that you contact National Instruments Technical Support at http://www.ni.com/ask and select either Phone or E-Mail based support. They are much better equipped to answer questions about a system crash than most visitors to this discussion forum. As your crash information lacked all of the information (the base address looks incorrect and the datestamp is missing), I cannot tell you if this is a known issue or not. However, you might also try NI-DAQ 7.0 by downloading it from http://www.ni.com/downloads/.

Sincerely,
Jeremiah Cox
Staff Product Support Engineer -- Platform Services
National Instruments -- http://www.ni.com