How do I perform a PCI-4474 Board EEPROM reset?

[Nick_Karpowicz]

After a LabView lock-up that required a hard reset of the computer, my PCI-4474 DAQ board gives an error involving the EEPROM values, telling me to contact NI as it may require re-calibration. It fails the self-test in MAX with the same error. Is there any way that I can reset the EEPROM to its factory values, or does the board have to be sent back? I switched it out for another identical board, which works fine, but I will need them both soon, so if there's something I can do myself, I'd prefer that.
Thanks,
Nick

[Mcdan]

Nick,

The EEPROM on your device stores some general information about your device as well as calibration information for it.  The driver has detected that some value in this EEPROM have changed unexpectedly (this could be due to an access to it when the computer froze).  What has changed however is not clear.  Because of this you have several alternatives.  The best thing you can do is externally calibrate the device.  This will overwrite all calibration information stored in the EEPROM, and insure that all of your calibration information is valid.  This operation should work regardless of the current state of the EEPROM.  If this is not an option, then there are several DAQmx functions you can run that will have the side-effect of resetting the EEPROM sanity check.  However, if you were to run one of these, although you will no longer get the error, if your calibration values have become invalid, then you will most certainly loose measurement accuracy.  I believe that if you change user info (Calibration property node) or change the user calibration password the driver will reset the it's sanity check.  However if you choose this route, make sure you thoroughly test your device to ensure that your measurements are correct.

So once again, my strong suggestion would be to externally calibrate the device.  If it's really not an option, try one of the other function calls, then test your device thoroughly.

I hope this helps,

Dan

[kalyanramuv]

Hi Nick,

What was the error number you got when you tried to perform self-calibration and self-test. I can check and see if we have an easy way to correct it. If not, you probably would have to send it to NI for recalibration.

Thanks,

Kalyan

[Nick_Karpowicz]

Thank you both for your help.

So this is peculiar - I put the old board back into the PC to check the error number, and now it passes the self test. I suppose I should be grateful when components fix themselves, but I do want to figure out why. Is there a limited lifetime for information in the EEPROM that would make the values empty after being disconnected from power for a few days?

I assume that I'll have to re-calibrate it, but it seems to be functioning for now.

Thanks,
Nick