NI-9145/9147/9149 Connection Fails with Error -63038

Issue Details

After upgrading LabVIEW and CompactRIO software, I am not able to establish a connection to an NI‑914x EtherCAT RIO Device.

Common symptoms include:

• The device appears in NI MAX but connection fails
• FPGA open or deploy fails
• Software cannot be deployed to the device
• NI‑RIO compatibility errors are shown

The following or a similar error may be reported:

Error –63038 occurred at niLvFpga_Open_NI 9147.vi:1660001

Possible reason(s):

The NI‑RIO software on the host is not compatible with the software on the target.

Upgrade the NI‑RIO software on the host in order to connect to this target.

This issue may occur after partial upgrades where host software and device firmware are on different major releases.

Solution

In some cases, this connection failure is caused by software and firmware version misalignment between the host system and the NI‑914x device.

Although the NI‑914x devices are not LabVIEW Real‑Time execution targets and cannot run standalone real‑time applications, certain LabVIEW RIO and FPGA workflows rely on host‑side Real‑Time software components, which may not be present in all installations.

To resolve the issue:

1. Ensure the following five components are installed using the same version and bitness on the host system:
• LabVIEW
• LabVIEW Real‑Time Module
• LabVIEW FPGA Module
• CompactRIO Drivers
• NI‑RIO
2. If LabVIEW Real‑Time is not installed, install it using the same LabVIEW release (for example, 2024 Q1 / Q3), if available.
3. After aligning all host software components, update the firmware on the NI‑914x device using NI MAX.
4. Deploy the updated software to the device and retry the connection.