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Agilent IO Libraries for Windows
Version J.02.00.01
This file contains the following:
* General Information
* New Features
* Fixes
* Issues
* Contact Support
* Downloading the Latest Version of the Agilent IO Libraries
General Information
===================
This IO Libraries package supports Windows 95, Windows 98,
Windows NT and Windows 2000.
After you have installed the Agilent IO Libraries, you can double-
click on the 'IO Readme' icon in the 'Agilent IO Libraries' folder
to view the latest information about the Agilent IO Libraries.
These information and troubleshooting files are in HTML format and
reside in the 'readme' subdirectory of the main IO Libraries
installation directory. If you have installed the IO Libraries in
the default location, these files are located in:
- C:\Program Files\Agilent\IO Libraries
These files are also present in the 'readme' subdirectory on the
Agilent IO Libraries CD-ROM.
Note that you must have a web browser installed on your computer
to view these files.
Electronic manuals are also included on the CD-ROM in the 'Manuals'
subdirectory. Setup options also allow you to install these
manuals on the hard drive. They are installed in the 'Manuals'
subidrectory of the main IO Libraries installation directory.
To view the electronic manuals that are included with IO Libraries
you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader version 3.01 or later installed
on your computer. You can obtain the latest Acrobat Reader from
Adobe's web site at: http://www.adobe.com by clicking on the 'Get
Acrobat Reader' icon.
Adobe Acrobat Reader can also be installed from the IO Libraries
CD-ROM. Double-click on the icon in the 'Adobe' subdirectory of
the CD-ROM to install it.
New Features
============
- Support for Windows Me has been added.
* Note that due to Windows configuration manager changes
made by Microsoft, the 82341C ISA GPIB card and the
E2075 ISA GPIO card are not supported on Windows Me.
- Two new request codes are available for the iserialctrl()
function in SICL.
* I_SERIAL_IN_DISCARD - The following actions will occur:
= The data in the serial input buffer will be discarded
= Any error conditions will be reset.
* I_SERIAL_OUT_DISCARD - The following actions will occur:
= Any pending writes will be aborted.
= The data in the serial output buffer will be discarded
= Any error conditions will be reset.
- Three new request codes are available for the iserialstat()
and iserialctrl() function in SICL.
* I_SERIAL_XON_CHAR
= Get / Change the character used for stopping transmission
when using software handshaking. The default is 0x11.
* I_SERIAL_XOFF_CHAR
= Get / Change the character used for re-starting transmission
when using software handshaking. The default is 0x13.
* I_SERIAL_REPLACE_CHAR
= Get / Change the character used to represent a 'bad' received
character (e.g. parity error). The default is 0xff.
- Since version J.01.00, the IO Libraries installation program will
detect the presence of National Instruments VISA and will default
to installing only SICL in this case so we will not overwrite
NI-VISA. You can force Agilent VISA to overwrite NI-VISA by
selecting the 'Full SICL and Agilent VISA Installation' menu
choice when installing the IO Libraries.
Fixes
=====
- In the viFlush() VISA function, it is now possible to discard
the ASRL in and out buffers separately.
* VI_ASRL_IN_BUF_DISCARD and VI_ASRL_OUT_BUF_DISCARD no
longer need to always be set together.
* If only one is set, VI_ERROR_INV_MASK no longer returned.
- The following attributes are now supported with the VISA
functions viGetAttribute() and viSetAttribute() for ASRL sessions:
= VI_ATTR_ASRL_XON_CHAR
= VI_ATTR_ASRL_XOFF_CHAR
= VI_ATTR_ASRL_REPLACE_CHAR
- If there are no IRQ's available for an auto-configured 82341C
ISA GPIB card, a dialog box is presented when the
IO Configuration program is run. Previously no indication was
given but the card would not work.
- SICL LAN Client with the host specified by IP address, no longer
requires an entry in the HOSTS table.
- The IO Configuration program no longer displays configuration
warnings when uninstalling the IO Libraries.
- The IO Libraries setup program no longer fails if msvcrt.dll is
not installed on the system.
- Some bad shortcuts in the Agilent IO Libraries and VXIPNP program
folders have been fixed.
- Some defects in the E8491 VXI Resource Manager program have been
fixed.
- The 'actualcnt' parameter returned by iwrite() in a commander
session to a GPIB device now returns the correct value. It used
to return a large apparently random number if a timeout occurred
before any bytes were sent. This problem also affected viWrite().
Issues
======
- 82341C GPIB cards and E2075A GPIO cards are not supported on
Windows Me.
* Due to Windows configuration manager changes made by Microsoft,
these ISA cards are very difficult to configure and can cause
the computer to hang during the configuration process.
Refer to the html troubleshooting page for more information.
- The 82341D GPIB card is not supported on Windows 2000.
* Note, however, that the 82341C card is supported.
- The Adaptec PCI to 1394 card which originally shipped with
the E8491 VXI to 1394 interface is not supported on Windows 2000.
* This original card was not OHCI compliant and only OHCI 1394
cards are supported on Windows 2000.
* The E8491 is now shipping with an OHCI compliant card which is
supported on Windows 2000.
- Beginning with the J.01.00 release, the default paths for
IO Libraries and VISA have changed to:
'\Program Files\Agilent\IO Libraries' for SICL
'\Program Files\VISA' for VISA
If you are installing over a previous version of the
IO Libraries, the directories will not be changed.
- We recommend downloading a Windows 2000 hotfix from Microsoft to
resolve two known problems which affect the E8491.
* Block write and I-SCPI performance on the E8491 on Windows 2000
are significantly reduced due to the workaround for a memory
leak in the 1394 driver.
* Performance problems and missed interrupts on Windows 2000 are
possible due to a busy-acknowledge defect in the 1394 driver.
This is known to affect some E8491 firmware downloads and some
I-SCPI and VXIplug&play drivers.
* Microsoft has implemented a hotfix which solves both of these
problems. Go to
http://www.microsoft.com
and search for 'Q262814' to find the Knowledge Base article with
information on obtaining the hotfix. If you have difficulty,
contact Agilent Support for more information.
* The hotfix must be obtained from Microsoft. Microsoft does not
allow Agilent to distribute Windows 2000 hotfixes.
* Microsoft has stated that this fix will be included in the
Windows 2000 Service Pack 2 when it becomes available.
* The E8491 driver will sense the presence of the hotfix or
Service Pack 2 and automatically switch to a higher performance
mode if either is installed.
- We recommend downloading a Windows 98/Me hotfix from Microsoft to
resolve a known Windows 98/Me IEEE 1394 problem which affects the
E8491.
* Performance problems and missed interrupts on Windows 98 and
Windows Me are possible due to a busy-acknowledge defect in the
1394 driver. This is known to affect some E8491 firmware
downloads and some I-SCPI and VXIplug&play drivers.
* Microsoft has implemented a hotfix which solves this problem.
You can find out more about this hotfix by going to
http://www.microsoft.com
and searching for Q252185 to find the Knowledge Base information
on obtaining the hotfix. If you have difficulty, contact Agilent
Support for more information.
* The hotfix must be obtained from Microsoft. Microsoft does not
allow Agilent to distribute Windows hotfixes.
- There is a memory leak in Windows 98 which may affect the
IO Libraries operation.
* We have observed a 4 Kb memory leak each time any program that
dynamically links the Microsoft msvcrt.dll (even a program that
does not do IO) is run and then exits on Windows 98. This DLL
is the C runtime library supplied with Microsoft Visual Studio
and it is used by many products.
* The IO Libraries dynamically link to msvcrt.dll so any program
using SICL and / or Agilent VISA will exhibit this problem.
* If your application involves starting and stopping programs many
times, you will eventually run out of memory. Windows 98 will
gradually become sluggish and eventually quit. The only solution
to this problem is to reboot.
* We are reporting this defect to Microsoft but there is no
resolution yet available.
* Note: If in Microsoft Visual Studio, you choose
'Multithreaded DLL' in the 'Use run-time library:' box
on the C/C++ Code Generation tab, your application will
dynamically load msvcrt.dll.
- When three or more E8491's are connected to a single IEEE 1394
interface card, certain topologies may not work.
* In certain topologies the E8491 hardware is not properly
identified on the 1394 bus. This will result in inconsistent
behavior when the VXI resource manager tries to configure
instruments in the VXI card cages.
* Behavior may include timeout errors while attempting to
communicate with a particular instrument, and / or instruments
appearing in cages where they are not actually located.
* Try reversing the cable connections to the ports on the host
interface card. In general, cable connections with longer chains
of E8491's should be on lower host ports.
- Don't re-run setup too quickly.
* After the IO Libraries Setup program exits, it takes several
seconds to clean up and unload itself from memory. If Setup
is re-run before this process is complete, you may see an
error message or find that the re-installation does not
behave as expected.
* Be sure to wait until the 'InstallShield Wizard' box on the
Windows task bar has disappeared before attempting to re-run
the IO Libraries Setup.
- Installing on dual boot systems can cause problems.
* Installing the IO Libraries on dual boot systems that share a
common 'Program Files' directory between two operating systems
is not recommended and may cause problems.
* If the IO Libraries are installed in the same directory for both
operating systems (e.g. 'Program Files\Agilent\IO Libraries'),
files for one OS may overwrite files for the other OS.
* InstallShield uses a directory under 'Program Files' to log the
name and location of files for later un-installation as well as
the components that are currently installed. Uninstalling or
modifying an installation on one OS may affect the files for the
other OS rather that the currently booted OS, even if these
files are installed in different directories.
- The syntax for specifying an option with the self-installing .exe
file 'iolibs.exe' is different from specifying a parameter with
Setup.exe on the CD.
* To specify options to Setup, invoke Setup from a command prompt
and separate the options with spaces:
e.g. 'setup auto novisa'
* When installing from the self-installing .exe file, you must
include a '-a' option as the first option:
e.g. 'iolibs -a auto novisa'
- Setup from the self-installing .exe file may prompt for bogus disk.
* If you install the IO Libraries from the self-installing .exe
file using a parameter (e.g. 'iolibs -a auto'), you may be
prompted to insert a non-existent disk.
* You may continue the installation by specifying the last
available disk in the set.
- After installation on Windows 95 and Windows 98, Windows may fail
to boot.
* When adding paths to the PATH statement in Autoexec.bat,
InstallShield does not recognize '@PATH' as a path statement.
It will create a second 'SET PATH' statement. If there is a
second PATH statement, it will replace the existing Windows
PATH and end up removing the Windows directories from the PATH.
* If Windows fails to boot with a message 'Cannot find WIN.COM,
unable to continue loading Windows', you will need to edit the
additional PATH statement in Autoexec.bat so the Windows
directories are again included in the PATH.
= From the DOS prompt type:
'c:\windows\command\edit c:\autoexec.bat'.
(Substitute the actual paths if you have a non-standard
installation.)
= Find the last 'SET PATH=...' statement and insert '%path%;'
immediately after the equals sign. (e.g. 'SET PATH=%path%;...'
and don't forget the semi-colon separator.)
= Save the modified file and reboot. Windows should now boot
normally.
- If the E8491 is very busy and an IEEE 1394 bus reset occurs, it may
become unresponsive and require a reset of the E8491 and/or a reboot
of the computer.
* This problem can occur when another 1394 device is added or removed
while the E8491 is busy.
Contact Support
===============
- The Agilent IO Libraries support web page is:
'http://www.agilent.com/find/iolib_support'
- For Telephone support:
* In the US, the phone number for support is 800-452-4844.
* In the Canada, the phone number for support is 877-894-4414.
* Outside the US and Canada, contact your country's Agilent
support organization. A list of contact information for other
countries is available on the Agilent website at:
'http://www.agilent.com/find/assist'.
Downloading the Latest Version of the Agilent IO Libraries
==========================================================
- You can download the latest released version of the Agilent IO
Libraries from:
'http://www.agilent.com/find/iolib'
Copyright 2000 Agilent Technologies. All Rights Reserved.