VISA Error In NI MAX Using Keysight IO Libraries Suite

Updated Oct 18, 2019

Reported In

Software

  • Measurement and Automation Explorer (MAX)

Driver

  • NI-VISA

Issue Details

I have both NI-VISA and Keysight IO Libraries Suite installed on my machine, and occasionally NI Measurement & Automation Explorer (NI MAX) shows a VISA Error with a yellow bang under Devices and Interfaces as shown in the image below. How can I resolve this error?

Solution

This error is caused by a compatibility issue between Keysight IO Libraries Suite 17.x and NI-VISA, and occurs when the NI-VISA Passport for Tulip is enabled in NI MAX. The issue is resolved in Keysight IO Libraries Suite version 17.2, Update 2 (17.2.20818.0). Complete the following steps if the error is encountered:
  1. Uninstall Keysight IO Libraries Suite versions 17.0 through 17.2, Update 1
  2. Install Keysight IO Libraries Suite version 17.2, Update 2 (17.2.20818.0) or later
Note that leaving the older software version installed and simply upgrading to the newer version could potentially cause problems with configuration.

Additional Information

This can also be related to having a different NI VISA library as the primary in Windows.