Chapter 18 - troubleshooting checklists, Introduction, Driver488/drv – Measurement Computing Personal488 rev.3.0 For DOS & Windows 3.Xi User Manual

Page 373: Troubleshooting checklists, 18a. introduction, Sub-chapters

18C. Driver488/SUB

IV. TROUBLESHOOTING - 18. Troubleshooting Checklists

IV-358

Personal488 User’s Manual, Rev. 3.0

18. Troubleshooting Checklists

Sub-Chapters

18A. Introduction ..........................................................................IV-357
18B. Driver488/DRV ......................................................................IV-357
18C. Driver488/SUB ......................................................................IV-358
18D. Driver488/W31.......................................................................IV-359
18E. Driver488/W95 & Driver488/WNT......................................IV-360

18A. Introduction

For any type of Personal488 Driver, if during or after installation you notice any of the following:

•

Error messages when trying to load

DRVR488.EXE

DRVR488W.EXE

in memory.

•

Failures in writing to an instrument using an

Output

command.

•

Can write but cannot read from an instrument using an

Enter

command.

•

Unusually slow transfer on the IEEE 488 bus.

•

General failures of basic Driver488 commands.

Please review the following steps to ensure your Driver488 software is properly configured and
installed.

18B. Driver488/DRV

Remove the card from the computer and note the selected switch and jumper settings, such as those
for: I/O address, DMA channel, and interrupt level. For switch and jumper definitions, refer to
“Section I: Hardware Guides” in this manual. If you have an NB488, which is the parallel to
IEEE 488 controller interface, verify the interrupt level of your LPT port or run the

NBTEST

program.

Run the

CONFIG

program which acts as an editor of the

DRVR488.INI

initialization file. This

DRVR488.INI

file is referred to by the

DRVR488.EXE TSR

program when loading in memory. If

this initialization file is not edited properly, the

DRVR488.EXE

program will fail during loading or

when communicating on the bus.

In the

CONFIG

program, first select the

DEVICE TYPE

which can be: MP488CT, MP488, AT488,

GP488 or NB488. These are 5 different hardware interfaces that are supported by the same
Driver488 software. You should select the interface that you are using. To identify your interface,
refer to “Section I: Hardware Guides.”

Note: For GP488 users (which is an 8-bit IEEE 488 controller plug-in card), make sure you have
a recent and compatible version of the hardware.

Once the

DEVICE TYPE

is selected, start selecting the I/O address, DMA channel and interrupt

level according to the switch settings determined in Step 1 above. Make sure none of these
parameters are used concurrently somewhere else in the computer, otherwise a system crash is
probable. In the case of an NB488, the DMA channel is not applicable.

The interface

NAME

represents the DOS device name of the controller interface. This

NAME

recommended to be IEEE for direct compatibility with application programs. This

NAME

should