NI-VISA (17.0 and Later) Known Issues

Overview

This document contains the NI-VISA known issues that were discovered before and since the release of NI-VISA 17.0. Not every issue known to NI will appear on this list; it is intended to only show the severe and common issues.

Known Issues by Date

The following items are known issues in NI-VISA sorted by Date.

157577Instrument I/O Assistant code generation fails when the FIPS algorithm policy is enabled.
105956Viewing NI-VISA Options tab on Real-Time controller may hang MAX
109538Slot path shows up incorrectly for multifunction and bridged NI-VISA-based PXI devices
126535VISA Read STB on Mac OS X waits for NI-VISA-defined timeout even if USB device responds sooner
145966Third-Party USB device communication may timeout after host PC is put into standby
166323Using interrupts with NI-VISA-based PXI cards on NI RT Hypervisor system may cause hang on reboot
183242Calling viUsbControlIn on composite USB devices may cause system to blue screen
90238 3WP9E800NI-VISA leaks Mach ports on Mac OS X when communicating with USB Raw devices
226865Drivers developed by the VISA Driver Development Wizard on Windows XP Dutch do not install correctly
255456Two applications simultaneously calling viLock and viUnlock on the same VISA INSTR resource will eventually result in an error
283686Rebooting a system or refreshing Devices & Interfaces in MAX will remove a key in visaconf.ini
308006Providing VISA remote access to a cRIO device may cause duplicate Serial & Parallel entries in MAX
412663VISA Interactive Control help cannot be opened on Linux computers
366314TCP VISA Read/Write calls have 2000 ms timeout
475562Only serial aliases are returned with I/O Name Filtering in LabVIEW 32-bit
491750The viStatusDesc function in LabWindows/CVI may return an incorrect status value when built in 64-bit configuration
523556NI-VISA may return error 0xBFFF003A (VI_ERROR_INV_SETUP) when enumerating Keysight devices
569122VisaNS Runtime Appears Twice in Measurement Studio Installer Builder
644336VISA & GPIB arbitration not supported in LabVIEW NXG with multiple sessions on the same Controller in Charge interface


IDKnown Issue
157577

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Instrument I/O Assistant code generation fails when the FIPS algorithm policy is enabled.
The Instrument I/O Assistant fails to generate code in Measurement Studio for Visual Studio 2005 and Visual Studio 2008 when the FIPS (Federal Information Processing Standards) algorithm policy is enabled on a machine.

Workaround: 1. Disable the FIPS algorithm policy on the machine.
2. Open or restart Visual Studio 2005 or Visual Studio 2008 and re-generate code in the Instrument I/O Assistant.
3. Re-enable the FIPS algorithm policy on the machine.

See this Microsoft KB for more information.

Reported Version: 4.5  Resolved Version: N/A  Added: 04/30/2009
105956

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Viewing NI-VISA Options tab on Real-Time controller may hang MAX
On PXI and PC Real-Time controllers with VISA Server installed, MAX occasionally may hang when trying to view the VISA Options tab.

Workaround: N/A

Reported Version: 4.3  Resolved Version: N/A  Added: 08/25/2010
109538

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Slot path shows up incorrectly for multifunction and bridged NI-VISA-based PXI devices
PXI devices that are either behind a PCI bridge or have multiple functions (for example, both Ethernet and SCSI device) show an incorrect slot path in MAX when using a driver generated by the VISA Driver Development Wizard.

Workaround: N/A

Reported Version: 4.3  Resolved Version: N/A  Added: 08/25/2010
126535

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VISA Read STB on Mac OS X waits for NI-VISA-defined timeout even if USB device responds sooner
VISA Read STB always waits for the timeout defined in NI-VISA before returning, even if a USB device returns a response quicker than the timeout value.

Workaround: N/A

Reported Version: 4.4  Resolved Version: N/A  Added: 08/25/2010
145966

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Third-Party USB device communication may timeout after host PC is put into standby
A Windows-based machine communicating with a third-party USB device using a driver not developed by the VISA Driver Development Wizard may timeout if the PC is put into standby mode in the middle of a NI-VISA USB transfer. After the PC is woken up, it thinks the USB device should resend the entire data packet and eventually times out because the packet is not resent.

Workaround: N/A

Reported Version: 4.4  Resolved Version: N/A  Added: 08/25/2010
166323

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Using interrupts with NI-VISA-based PXI cards on NI RT Hypervisor system may cause hang on reboot
If you are using interrupts with a PXI card that uses an NI-VISA-based driver on an NI RT Hypervisor system, independent reboot of the RT system may hang if the driver does not have the interrupt disarm sequence defined.

Workaround: N/A

Reported Version: 4.5.1  Resolved Version: N/A  Added: 08/25/2010
183242

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Calling viUsbControlIn on composite USB devices may cause system to blue screen
When using viUsbControlIn or VISA USB Control In.vi, if a composite USB RAW device is passed in as the VISA resource, the system may crash with a blue screen.

Workaround: N/A

Reported Version: 4.6  Resolved Version: N/A  Added: 08/25/2010
90238
3WP9E800


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NI-VISA leaks Mach ports on Mac OS X when communicating with USB Raw devices
When performing a VISA Open and VISA Close on a USB Raw device multiple times inside a loop, the number of Mach ports in Mac OS X increases. This may cause a crash if the code performing these calls is run over an extended period of time.

Workaround: Restart the development/run-time environment

Reported Version: 3.4  Resolved Version: 4.5  Added: 08/25/2010
226865

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Drivers developed by the VISA Driver Development Wizard on Windows XP Dutch do not install correctly
When using the VISA Driver Development Wizard on Windows XP Dutch, the OS does not correctly recognize the .inf file generated.

Workaround: N/A

Reported Version: 3.4  Resolved Version: N/A  Added: 08/25/2010
255456

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Two applications simultaneously calling viLock and viUnlock on the same VISA INSTR resource will eventually result in an error
Two applications that are both trying to lock and unlock a VISA INSTR resource using viLock and viUnlock will result in one of the applications eventually returning error -1073807204: VISA: (Hex 0xBFFF009C) The current session did not have a lock on the resource.

Workaround: N/A

Reported Version: 5.0.1  Resolved Version: N/A  Added: 08/09/2011
283686

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Rebooting a system or refreshing Devices & Interfaces in MAX will remove a key in visaconf.ini
If the following key is added to disable the error replacement character when performing 9-bit VISA serial reads, refreshing Devices & Interfaces in MAX or rebooting the system will remove that key from visaconf.ini:
[ASRL-RSRC-ALIAS]
DisableErrorReplacement=1

Workaround: N/A

Reported Version: 5.0  Resolved Version: N/A  Added: 08/09/2011
308006

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Providing VISA remote access to a cRIO device may cause duplicate Serial & Parallel entries in MAX
Adding a new permission to the Remote Access List under the VISA Server for a cRIO device may cause duplicate Serial & Parallel entries to appear underneath the device in MAX.

Workaround: N/A

Reported Version: 4.6  Resolved Version: N/A  Added: 08/09/2011
412663

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VISA Interactice Control help cannot be opened on Linux computers

Workaround: N/A

Reported Version: 5.4  Resolved Version: N/A  Added: 09/06/2013
366314

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TCP VISA Read/Write/Open calls have 2000 ms timeout.
If you pass an invalid TCP resource to VISA Read or VISA Write, the call will take 2000 ms to timeout. This occurs regardless of the timeout value originally specified with the VISA Set Timeout call.

Due to the synchronous operation of VISA Open, a secondary effect will occur in which parallel VISA calls hang for 2000 ms if an invalid TCP resource is provided to VISA Open.

Workaround: Programmatically check to ensure VISA TCP resource is valid before calling VISA Read/Write/Open.

Reported Version: Unknown  Resolved Version: N/A  Added: 08/04/2014
475562

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Only serial aliases are returned with I/O Name Filtering in LabVIEW 32-bit.
When using I/O Name Filtering with Include these Aliases set to All defined aliases for resources of this class, LabVIEW 32-bit only returns serial aliases. For LabVIEW 64-bit, all defined aliases are returned.

Workaround: Set the aliases with MAX.

Reported Version: 14.0  Resolved Version: N/A  Added: 08/04/2014
491750

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The viStatusDesc function in LabWindows/CVI may return an incorrect status value when built in 64-bit configuration
The viStatusDesc function in LabWindows/CVI may incorrectly report "VI_SUCCESS" for unknown error codes instead of returning "VI_WARN_UNKNOWN_STATUS" when built in 64-bit configuration.

Workaround: N/A

Reported Version: Unknown  Resolved Version: N/A  Added: 08/03/2015
523556

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NI-VISA may return error 0xBFFF003A (VI_ERROR_INV_SETUP) when enumerating Keysight devices
In some cases, NI-VISA will return error 0xBFFF003A (VI_ERROR_INV_SETUP) when attempting to enumerate Keysight devices. This occurs because both the Tulip and Serial passports return duplicate information about the devices.

Workaround: Disable either the Tulip or Serial passport.

Reported Version: 14.0.1  Resolved Version: N/A  Added: 08/03/2015
536772

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Connection to HiSLIP devices may be dropped if HiSLIP data message contains MessageID parameter of 'None' (0xFFFFFFFF)
If NI-VISA receives a HiSLIP data message with a MessageID parameter of 'None' (0xFFFFFFFF), it will drop the connection to the HiSLIP device.

Workaround: N/A

Reported Version: 15.0  Resolved Version: N/A  Added: 08/03/2015
543928

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Extra 0xFF characters may be received when using NI-VISA to read from serial ports on Linux RT targets
There is a known issue with the Linux kernel used in LabVIEW Real-Time 2013 and 2014. It can cause extra 0xFF characters to be returned by a call to VISA Read on a serial port. For more information, go to ni.com/info and enter Info Code NIVISA1501Update_en.

Workaround: N/A

Reported Version: 5.4  Resolved Version: 15.0.1  Added: 11/03/2015
569122

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VisaNS Runtime Appears Twice in Measurement Studio Installer Builder
Measurement Studio Installer Builder may display two duplicate options for including the VisaNS runtime in the installer.

Workaround: Choose one of the instances of the VisaNS runtime, and it will be correctly included in your installer.

Reported Version: 15.5  Resolved Version: N/A  Added: 3/9/2016
644336

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VISA & GPIB arbitration not supported in LabVIEW NXG with multiple sessions on the same Controller in Charge interface
Applications which make use of both VISA sessions and traditional GPIB sessions on the same Controller in Charge interface can experience race conditions and intermittent errors when running in LabVIEW NXG. For more information, please visit www.ni.com/info and enter info code 'gpibvisaconvert'.

Workaround: Migrate from deprecated GPIB palette to VISA palette for existing applications.

Reported Version: 17.0  Resolved Version: N/A  Added: 4/26/2017

Document last updated on 9/6/2018

Glossary of Terms

 

  • Bug ID - When an issue is reported to NI, you may be given this ID or find it on ni.com.  You may also find IDs posted by NI on the discussion forums or in KnowledgeBase articles.
  • Legacy ID – An older issue ID that refers to the same issue.  You may instead find this issue ID in older known issues documents.
  • Description - A few sentences which describe the problem. The brief description given does not necessarily describe the problem in full detail.
  • Workaround - Possible ways to work around the problem.
  • Reported Version - The earliest version in which the issue was reported.
  • Resolved Version - Version in which the issue was resolved or was no longer applicable. "N/A" indicates that the issue has not been resolved.
  • Date Added - The date the issue was added to the document (not the reported date).