Archived: NI-VISA 5.1.x Known Issues

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Overview



This document contains the NI-VISA 5.1.x known issues that were discovered before and since the release of NI-VISA 5.1.x. Not every issue known to NI will appear on this list; it is intended to only show the severe and more common issues that can be encountered.

Each Issue appears as a row in the table and includes these fields:
  • Issue ID
  • Legacy ID - The issue's legacy ID from NI's deprecated bug reporting database (if applicable)
  • Issue Title
  • Problem Description
  • Workaround
  • Reported Version - the earliest version of MAX the issue was reported in
  • Resolved Version - version the issue was resolved or was no longer applicable
  • Date Added - the date the issue was added to the document(not reported date)

Known Issues by Date

The following items are known issues in NI-VISA 5.1.x Known Issues sorted by Date.

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
155527Calling viBufRead multiple times causes incorrect timeout behavior in viBufRead
164621NI-VISA does not recognize Bluetooth devices on Windows Mobile
166323Using interrupts with NI-VISA-based PXI cards on NI RT Hypervisor system may cause hang on reboot
182027Setting serial baud rate with NI-VISA may return errors from third-party serial drivers
183242Calling viUsbControlIn on composite USB devices may cause system to blue screen
226865Drivers developed by the VISA Driver Development Wizard on Windows XP Dutch do not install correctly
90238 3WP9E800NI-VISA leaks Mach ports on Mac OS X when communicating with USB Raw devices
242354VISA always adds a parallel port resource
255456Two applications simultaneously calling viLock and viUnlock on the same VISA INSTR resource will eventually result in an error
257985Calling ReadStatusByte for a USBTMC instrument might result in a hang
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
309225VISA C examples cannot build on Mac OS X 10.6.8
310315Both viFindRsrc and the VISA I/O Control do not list USBTMC devices in 64-bit applications



IDKnown Issue
105956

Return
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
155527

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Calling viBufRead multiple times causes incorrect timeout behavior in viBufRead
When viBufRead is called with a discrete timeout, the function initially times out correctly. Every subsequent call to viBufRead times out immediately instead of waiting for the specified length of time.

Workaround: N/A

Reported Version: 4.4  Resolved Version: N/A  Added: 08/25/2010
164621

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NI-VISA does not recognize Bluetooth devices on Windows Mobile
On a Windows Mobile device, Bluetooth devices can act as virtual serial devices, giving them a COM port number. NI-VISA cannot recognize this COM port and gives errors when trying to access it through VISA functions.

Workaround: Use the non-NI-VISA Bluetooth VIs.

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
182027

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Setting serial baud rate with NI-VISA may return errors from third-party serial drivers
NI-VISA may return an error while setting the serial baud rate when using third-party serial drivers, even though setting this same baud rate may work in other third-party applications. This is due to how NI-VISA verifies baud rate settings.

Workaround: N/A

Reported Version: 4.5  Resolved Version: 15.0  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
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
90238
3WP9E800


Return
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: N/A  Added: 08/25/2010
242354

Return
VISA always adds a parallel port resource
VISA will always add a static resource bound to LPT1 in visaconf.ini. If a system does not have a parallel port, this resource will show up with a yellow exclamation mark in MAX.

Workaround: Delete the parallel port in MAX

Reported Version: 5.0  Resolved Version: 15.0  Added: 08/09/2011
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
257985

Return
Calling ReadStatusByte for a USBTMC instrument might result in a hang
In a .NET application, calling ReadStatusByte() from the Measurement Studio NI-VISA library for a USBTMC instrument might result in a hang.

Workaround: N/A

Reported Version: 4.6  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

Return
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
309225

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VISA C examples cannot build on Mac OS X 10.6.8
Trying to build the VISA C examples on Mac OS X 10.6.8 with xcodebuild fails.

Workaround: N/A

Reported Version: 5.1  Resolved Version: N/A  Added: 08/09/2011
310315

Return
Both viFindRsrc and the VISA I/O Control do not list USBTMC devices in 64-bit applications
Calling viFindRsrc in a 64-bit application or expanding the VISA I/O Control in 64-bit LabVIEW will not return USBTMC devices. VISA is still able to correctly open a session and communicate with the USBTMC device through other functions.

Workaround: For the I/O Control, provide the USBTMC device with an Alias through MAX and change the filter on the I/O Control to show "All defined aliases for resources of this class" to allow the device to show up. There is no workaround for viFindRsrc.

Reported Version: 5.1  Resolved Version: 5.1.1  Added: 08/09/2011

Document last updated on 10/10/2011

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).