System hang using LabView/PXI

[Henrik_S]

Hi, I am using the following HW:
PXI-1000B
8330 MXI-3 in slot 1
PXI-GBIP in slot 3
2503 Mux in slot 4
2503 Mux in slot 5
6533 D I/O in slot 6
6070E M I/O in slot 7
6713 A O in slot 8

MXI-3 card in the PC to interface the PXI chassis

I use all the latest drivers (I think!), including a freshly updated BIOS in my Dell OptiPlex GX150 PC system.

I have severe problems with the PC hanging hard (the monitor turns all black) every now and then. If I for example start the MAX software, closes it and start it again after a while, the chances for a crash are very high. Sometimes it hangs by just opening LabView.

Its crash probability seem to be proportional to the number of cards inserted in the chassis, by for example only usin
g the 6070E it seems quite stable.

Please see the attached file if you can detect some incompatibilities in driver versions or similar. I have struggled with this problem *many* days, and I am running out of ideas on how to solve this issue. Thanks.
/Henrik S

[Josh_KNH]

Hello Henrik,

I have reviewed your driver versions, and there are no incompatibilities listed, and certainly nothing that would cause the type of behavior you are experiencing.

In order to help you better, there are a few things you should consider trying to better troubleshoot this system:

1. Make sure you are running the most current MXI-3 optimizer software (v1.15), which you can find here.

2. It almost sounds as if your problem stems from certain pieces of hardware - you need to swap cards in a logical manner to determine if it is a certain card(s) that is actually causing the hang. Start with one card, and swap out the one card with e
very other card, and see if the hang occurs. Work your way up to using 2 cards, and keep record of which cards seem to be involved most frequently when it crashes.

3. Test the PXI chassis on another PC. This will help isolate if the problem is software or hardware related. Maybe the drivers on the original PC are corrupt beyond repair, even with upgrading, so a simple re-install of the system might correct your problem.

I can personally vouch for using the Dell Optiplex GX150 with a MXI-3 kit, as I use the exact same equipment on a daily basis, so I doubt that it is some type of fundamental incompatibility.

Regards,
Josh Hernstrom
Applications Engineer
National Instruments