Fixing VISA Overrun Error (Error -1073807252 (Hex 0xBFFF006C))

Updated Apr 2, 2025

Reported In

Software

LabVIEW

Driver

NI-VISA
NI-Serial

Issue Details

I am using serial communication with VISA to send and receive data from hardware in LabVIEW. I keep getting the following error:

VISA: (Hex 0xBFFF006C) An overrun error occurred during transfer. A character was not read from the hardware before the next character arrived.

Solution

This error occurs when data is available for a subsequent read before the current read has finished executing. To fix this, we need to read data from the device faster by doing one or more of the following.

Increase the baud rate between the computer and the external device
Reduce the amount of data being passed through the bus
Change the read and write architecture of the LabVIEW VI to Producer/Consumer Architecture
Use the VISA Flush I/O Buffer VI by setting the correct buffer type from the VI's options.

Additional Information

If this error is intermittent, you should double-check that your other Instrument Control Properties (such as Parity and Stop Bits) are set correctly for your device.

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