NI Measurement & Automation Explorer (MAX) GPIB Scan for Instruments Missing

Issue Details

• I built an application with LabVIEW and created an Installer including NI-488.2. I installed the application on my target computer and both the application and NI Measurement & Automation Explorer (MAX) work generally fine. I have checked the Windows Device Manager and my NI GPIB device shows up correctly under NI GPIB Interfaces. However, there is no option to scan for instruments or find my instruments in NI MAX.
• I've installed an NI GPIB card and I can self-test and restart the card. But the button to Scan for Instruments in NI MAX is missing.

Solution

• Ensure you installed the full NI-488.2 driver and not just the NI-488.2 Runtime on your computer. The Scan for Instruments feature in NI MAX is only available with the full featured NI-488.2 driver. You can check the version(s) installed on your computer in NI MAX when navigating to My System » Software » NI 488.2.
  • When doing to, make sure you install a version of the NI-488.2 driver compatible with your Operating System, your LabVIEW version , and the hardware device you are planning to use. You can consult each driver version's readme file for more detailed information.
• In case you built an application installer that includes the NI-488.2 driver, make sure you downloaded the full version or added "NI-488.2 Application Development Support" to your application installer.
  • To display this option, go to the Additional Installer tab in the Installer properties, unchecked Automatically select recommended installers and uncheck Only display runtime installers.
• Force reinstall the NI-488.2 driver to fix a driver corruption on your computer.
• If none of the steps above solved the absent Scan option button, there is a chance that the NI GPIB Enumeration Service is not running. To resolve this perform the following steps:

1. Open Windows Services application.
2. In the list of services search for the NI GPIB Enumeration Service and check if it is running.

3. If the service is stopped try to restart it by right-clicking on the item and clicking Start.
4. There is a chance that the service won't be able to start and you get the following error message:

Windows could not start the service on Local Computer.
Error 1069
The service didn’t start due to a logon failure.

In this case proceed with the following steps:

1. Right-click on the service and open Properties
2. Select the Log On tab
3. Set Log on as: Local System account

4. Click OK.

These shall resolve the issue, thus you shall have the Scan for Instruments button in MAX for the GPIB interface now.