Error 0xfffb388E: "PXI Chassis Identified but Not Described" in NI MAX

Updated Apr 4, 2023

Reported In

Hardware

  • PXI Chassis

Issue Details

When I try to identify my PXI/PXIe chassis in Measurement & Automation Explorer (MAX) I see some or all of the following symptoms:
  • I get a yellow exclamation mark next to my chassis
  • I get a red dot with error 0xfffb388E. 
  • I get the error message: "A recoverable error has occurred. Error Code 0XFFFB38F5."
  • In the chassis status, it says "This chassis has been identified but is not described in the pxisys.ini for this system." See image below. 



I have everything connected correctly and powered on but I still get this error. How do I get rid of this message?

Solution

Follow the steps outlined in the KnowledgeBase Article to Reset NI MAX. If resetting the MAX database does not resolve your issue, proceed with the following steps:
 

If it was downloaded through NI Package Manager, uninstall and reinstall PXI Platform Services . Otherwise, perform a force reinstall.

Pull out all the cards except for your controller. A malfunctioning card can cause the PXI chassis to not detect properly. If the chassis is now detected and identified, reinserting them following a binary search would be the most efficient method. For example, placing in half the cards at a time to find which half the faulty card is in, and then splitting that half in half and repeating until the card is found.

If no cards are causing the issue, follow the steps below: 


On a Windows system:

1. Test the chassis on another computer or controller if available and note any changes. The goal being to limit the hardware specifically the MXI or controller system that is causing issues
2. Confirm that the behavior can be replicated with an empty chassis
3. If using a MXI-Express connection, test a different PCI/PCIe slot 
3. After this, confirm if the chassis or cards show up in Windows Device Manager
4. Then go ahead and navigate to the directory C:\Windows.
5. Move the pxisys.ini. and pxiesys.ini to the desktop or rename them. (For example, you could rename pxisys.ini to pxisys_old.ini.) You may only have pxisys.ini or pxiesys.ini. If both exist, ensure that both .ini files are moved or renamed, as in some cases moving just one (such as pxiesys.ini)may not resolve the error. 
6. Restart the PC and launch MAX. This will cause PXI Platform Services to find the installed devices again and also recreate the pxisys.ini and pxiesys.ini files.

On a PXI Real-Time (RT) System or Dual Boot PXI Controller, you will need to remove the pxisys.ini file from the /NI-RT/SYSTEM/ folder. You can do this by doing the following:
1. In Internet Explorer, go to ftp://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/NI-RT/SYSTEM/ where xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx is the IP address of your RT system.
2. Click Page and choose Open FTP Site in Windows Explorer
3. In the window that opens, locate and copy pxisys.ini (could be pxiesys.ini) to the desktop.
4. Reboot the RT system. This should cause PXI Platform Services to find the installed devices again and recreate the pxisys.ini and pxiesys.ini files