"Library not found or failed to load" on other system

[Haverdings]

Dear all,

I have searched the forum a little and found similar problems, but not really a solution. Therefore I will give it a try with this post:

I have two computers both similar: Windows 7, 64-bits, Labview 2011 (service pack 1) installed.

And the goal is to acquire images from a BitFlow frame-grabber. 

BitFlow provided software for the frame-grabber, which is tested for windows 7, 64 bits and Labview 2011. With one of the machines (machine A), the programming is working fine. No problems there.

On the other machine (machine B), Labview is unable to read the provided library: After selecting the library in the Call Library Function Node, Labview gives the error "Library not found or failed to load" at the Call Library Function Node.

Machine B has - in all my knowledge - the same configuration of all the software compared to machine A, therefore I have no idea what the problem is here. The only difference is that machine B has a different computer security protocol - but it does have administrator rights...

Additionally, I have tried a stand-alone executable (and installer) which did work on a third machine, but not on the machine B - due to the same problem.

Does anybody have a clue in what direction I should search for the solution? Or what the problem may be? Or what I am missing here?

Let me know if you need any additional info.

Best regards,

Michael

[ThiCop]

Hello Michael,

Just to make sure (never hurts to double-check) that there aren't any software differences:

Can you post the MAX Reports of both set-ups?

You can create these the following way:

http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/allkb/271F252B4EF0A2E0862570E70056A1E4

Based on your explanation it seems like the problem is occuring in the development environment.

There's a simple help page that gives you the first step to try if you have this type of error:

http://zone.ni.com/reference/en-XX/help/371361H-01/lverror/edlibnotfound/

What do you get exactly if you do this?

Are you able to load it if you reconfigure it?

Can you check if the library is present in the same folder as where it was on the original/working PC?

Are both relative and absolute file paths of VI's and libraries the same on both pc's?

I've also seen similar issues like this related to access rights (you mentioned different security protocols).

[rolfk]

Most likely your Bitflow driver was compiled with a particular version of Visual Studio and therefore requires the according C runtime library support. Did you install that library or just copy the DLL to the machine? Note that there are different C runtime versions for each Visual Studio version, and you need to have the C runtime version installed for the Visual Studio version in which the library was compiled.

If you haven't installed the driver try to do so. The installer should take care about installing the required C runtime support.

[Haverdings]

See the attachment for two system reports. Is that what you mean? 

PC1 is the one where the .dll is read normally, and PC2 is the one where the .dll cannot be read.

I realized that the difference between PC1 and 2 is a Windows service pack - which is installed on PC2. I don't know if this should make any difference...

With all due respect to the NI help page, but the page for "library not found or failed to load" is completely useless. The whole problem is when I do configure the node to the right .dll, it still claims that "library not found or failed to load". I assume that would mean a 'failed to load' error (because the library is present), but I don't know whose 'fault' this is.

The Bitflow driver is installed by just copying files to your computer. No installer is required - so they claim. Is there a way to check if the required C runtime version is used? 

Thanks for the responses

[rolfk · Accepted solution]

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@Haverdings wrote:
"library not found or failed to load". I assume that would mean a 'failed to load' error (because the library is present), but I don't know whose 'fault' this is.

The Bitflow driver is installed by just copying files to your computer. No installer is required - so they claim. Is there a way to check if the required C runtime version is used? 

Thanks for the responses

---

Well while the message could be more elaborate and make an explicit difference between file not found and not being able to load it, if LabVIEW would do some extra humba mumba woodoo, it's exactly what Windows tells an application when it tries to load a DLL. That error code simply says, sorry I couldn't load the DLL and that could be becuase it doesn't exist but also because I couldn't load it for other reasons, such as missing dependencies, (or a corrupted OS, or whatever else). Not very helpful for sure, and I'm not sure LabVIEW should try to be smarter than Windows here, by trying to see if the DLL did actually exist. For all it's worth it could be a text file, or anything else that is not a DLL at all, having the DLL name!

An interesting read that actually explains the problem a bit more can be found here. You see that it is not a LabVIEW problem but just about anyones problem who has to deal with DLLs that can come just about from anywhere.

The best way to see what dependencies your DLL has, is to load it with the Dependency Viewer program mentioned in there. It has it's problems nowadays on Windows 7 systems but still can give you some useful informations.

[Haverdings]

Yes! The tip about dependencies got me thinking. The Dependency Viewer program worked fine, but I could not really figure out what it was I was missing (but it did show it was missing something). Luckily, somehow I finally found out that the installation of the Bitflow driver (not for the Labview compatibility) wasn't as fully installed as the other system (not my fault,  ). Additional 32-bit stuff was missing. After reinstalling this, the problem was gone!

Time to face the next problems 

Thanks for the help.

Best regards,

Michael

[zxmlced]

Hi,

how did you found out that the installation of the Bitflow driver (not for the Labview compatibility) wasn't as fully installed as the other system!,i have the same problom for this ,fristly code on my computer didn't have error, after I reinstalled the computer operating system ，that was a error for the code,but i cannot find my computer need to install the absence driver!

Best regards,

Ming