NI MAX Does Not Recognize Devices After Windows Completed an Update

Issue Details

Sometimes, after Windows 7 or 10 performs an update I cannot find my devices in NI Measurement and Automation Explorer (NI-MAX).

Solution

If this situation happens, try to follow these steps to solve the issue:

1. Unplug all your devices from your computer.
2. Open NI-MAX, then go to Tools >> Reset Configuration Data.  Hit Yes if you are prompted to allow NI MAX to make changes in your PC.  Sometimes, this is enough to solve the issue, but if this situation persists, continue with the following steps.

Check Windows Services associated with NI-MAX

1. After you complete the database reset.  Go to the Control Panel and open Administrative Tools (you can also search for it  manually) 

4. Open Administrative Tools and double-click on Services

5. Open Services and look for NI Configuration Manager and NI Device Loader and look for the state of both services .  After Windows performs an update, both services are randomly disabled either by Windows itself or other security software( like anti-virus systems, Firewalls, etc).

To solve this, go to the properties of the service (Right-click service >> Properties)

and then change the startup type to Automatic (Delayed Start).  Then, go to the Recovery tab and open the drop-down menus to configure the following parameters:

First Failure: Restart the service.

Second Failure: Restart the service.

Subsequent failures: Restart the service.

7.  The final configuration should look like this:

After completing these steps for both, NI Configuration Manager and NI Device Loader, hit Apply and OK.  Now you can open NI MAX and plug in your devices.

Additional Information

Services check should always be part of the standard DAQ troubleshoot.  Specially since Windows Update released its latest updates for Windows 10.  This issue is related to Windows configuration and security settings, some of them can disable NI's and other third party services randomly.

This error usually occurs after Windows 10 completes an automatic update.  NI MAX is not capable of finding your devices because there are two services assciated with NI MAX that Windows has disabled.

• NI Configuration Manager
• NI Device Loader

Usually, Windows updates disables important services after an update and does not let the user to enable them by just restarting them. Check the related links section for more information on the NI Windows Services installed by NI Software.