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Error -17004 only when using CVI RTE

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I'm not asking for a solution. I'm asking for additional debugging steps I can try to determine what is going on.

 

I'm trying to call a function in a CVI built DLL (INSTR.dll) from my TestStand sequence. My DLL is statically linked to a second DLL (SYSTEM.dll) by including the SYSTEM.lib library in the INSTR project. SYSTEM.dll is statically linked to a utility library. SYSTEM and INSTR dlls reside in the same folder, and the utility library is in a folder in the %path% environment variable.

 

When I set the CVI adapter to execute in an external instance, my function works correctly. But when I set the step to run with the CVI RTE (either through the adapter option or the "Always Run In Process" option, I get an error saying that the DLL could not be loaded:

 

"Error loading step 'Action' of Sequence 'MainSequence' in file 'Test.seq'. Could not load DLL or external library 'C:\Temp\test.dll'.

Error code -17004, Could not load DLL or library.

Source: 'TSAPI'

 

I've tried using ProcessMonitor (from Windows Sysinternals) and it shows that all of my DLLs are found during probing and are loaded correctly.

 

Even if I run the sequence editor from CVI as the "Executable to debug" I get the same problem. When I do that, I put a breakpoint in my DllMain function, and that function is never called.

 

If I use a test client executable that is in the same folder as SYSTEM and INSTR, it loads the dll correctly. (But I just realized that the test client is statically linked to the INSTR dll, while TestStand is dynamically loading the DLL; I'll have to try modifying the test client to do that)

 

My problem is that I can't reproduce this with a simpler set of DLLs so I can't provide an example. I've tried using ProcessMonitor and dependency walker (even though it's out of date) and they didn't help.

 

Anyone have any other ideas or tools I could try?

Josh W.
Certified TestStand Architect
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Josh,

 

Please try adding the lib files to the your final DLL using the add files to Dll option in CVI --target settings.

 

Ravi

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Ravi,

 

Thank you. In my simple test case, that fixed my problem.

 

But I just tried doing that with my full development DLL, and I still get -17004. Any other debugging tips? In the meantime, I'll try to reproduce my problem outside of TestStand. Then I can take this issue to the CVI forums.

 

-Josh

Josh W.
Certified TestStand Architect
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Solution
Accepted by topic author Josh_W

Well, I feel stupid. My subordinate dll project, and therefore my dll, was named 'SYSTEM' (the name was given to us by the customer). And of course, this causes naming collisions when trying to load that dependency using the CVIRTE (the Development Environment must use a different dll loading order).

 

I added a prefix to the filename, and everything is working now.

 

Smiley EmbarassedSometimes, it's the most obvious things that we miss.

Josh W.
Certified TestStand Architect
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