NI-DAQmx 7.4 "forget" DAQ cards installed in PC

[norski]

In two test systems delivered to a customer, NI-DAQ “forgets” which NI cards that are installed. It could work fine for several days, and then suddenly they are “gone”. Only way to find them again is to remove the NI cards, reboot without the cards, power off, then install the cards again and reboot.. The OS is Windows XP, NI-DAQ 7.4, cards: PCI-6602, PCI-6023E, and PCI-CAN.

The same customer has several identical systems that are working fine. One of the things they could find to be different is that the computers that “forgets” has IRQ’s up to 22, while the older PC’s only goes to 15.

Does anyone know why this happen, and if there’s a fix for the problem?

[stilly32]

Norski,

I haven't ran into an issue like this, I am hoping you can provide a little more information while I research possible causes:

When you say "forget" do the devices not show up in Windows device manager, or just in Measurement and Automation Explorer?

What brand/model are the PCs with the issue? Are they the same as your other systems that work? Also, are they all on SP 2?

Also, which version of the CAN driver do you have?

Normally I would like to have you test individual cards to see if a specific one was causing the issue, but that may not be an option with the long repeat time. One thing to confirm though would be that the individual cards work as expected before they don't show up.

As far your concern with the IRQ numbers, I'm not sure how this could be in play. My understanding of IRQ is that it only has 16 lines (lines 0-15). There are also 8 lines (0-7) of DMA - this could account for the 22 lines if things were read incorrectly. Do the older systems not have DMA lines? 

Thanks,

Andrew