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GPIB interface can not be enabled on E8362B

Question asked by lzw on Feb 1, 2008
Latest reply on Feb 4, 2008 by lzw

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The GPIB interface on my E8362 can not be enabled. When I open the device manager, it says National Instruments AT-GPIB/TNT is disabled. Further check shows that the driver not installed. (Is it really the NI's AT-GPIB/TNT card installed on the PNA?)

I don't know how shall I proceed to activate the interface, which driver shall I install on the box? Any help is appreciated!

P.S: Agilent I/O libraries is the one shiped with instrument, firmware is A.06.04.05.

Thanks!

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jvall Feb 1, 2008 8:57 AM
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This is a relatively common occurrence that can happen for a number of reasons. I would first uninstall the PNA application using the Add/Remove feature of Control panel. Reboot the box (don't just hibernate.) Then download and install newer firmware such as 6.04.32 (or keep the same version if necessary).

If this does not solve the problem, then we can go to plan B.
Whatever you do....Don't mess with the IO libraries!!
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bhokkan Feb 2, 2008 10:01 PM
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The earlier PNAs had just one GPIB port (it sounds like yours is one of those). The GPIB controller chip on that PNA CPU board is the same chip used by National Instruments on their AT/GPIB-TNT cards. When the PNA is in GPIB "Talker/Listener" mode (so it can be controlled via SCPI by another machine/PC that's the GPIB System Controller), the PNA GPIB is using a device driver written by Agilent. When a user (or user program)toggles that PNA into GPIB System Controller mode, the Agilent device driver gets disabled and the National Instruments GPIB driver becomes enabled. The only reason for a user or user program to toggle the PNA into System Controller mode is if a user program installed onboard the PNA will be using the PNA to control other GPIB instruments or devices. And it would be doing so via calls to the National Instruments driver (even if the program is making Agilent SICL or VISA calls to the GPIB).

Having said that, the most common reason people run into a GPIB driver loading problem on one of those PNAs, is if they shut down the PNA application and restart it while their user program is still running (onboard the PNA) and has an IO handle for GPIB control still open that it didn't close. When the PNA application starts up it attempts to go into Talker/Listener mode -- to disable the National Instruments driver and enable the Agilent one. If a user program still has an open GPIB IO handle, the National Instruments driver cannot be disabled. When that occurs, the GPIB hardware can end up in a state where neither of the two device drivers (Agilent and National) will load properly after that. The remedy is to do as John suggested in his posted reply yesterday to your post. That will typically set things right again. Otherwise there's John's "Plan B" which I think he'll provide if needed.

Best regards,
Brad Hokkanen
Agilent Technologies
PNA Firmware Team
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jvall Feb 3, 2008 9:53 AM
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Brad provided a much better explanation than I did. I may have assumed too much on my reply.

In any case, the point I want to emphasize is that Device Manager will NEVER show both GPIB devices active at the same time (for a 500MHz CPU). One will always be disabled; this is normal. One is active when in System Controller mode; while the other is active in Talker/Listener mode.

If this is your only problem, then you don't actually have a problem!
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lzw Feb 4, 2008 1:27 AM
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Thanks you very much for your help!

The PNA was used as a system controller by my colleague. And the box has just one GPIB interface (500 MHz CPU).

I followed your instruction first removing the PNA application, then rebooted the box. After that I tried to install the firmware A060432.msi installation package. It will not proceed and complains that "Windows could not load the installer for GPIB. Contact your hardware vendor for assistance" (error 1722)

Now I am going to start to run recover boot. Is this the plan B for the box?
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GPIB interface can not be enabled on E8362B

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