Vector VN8900 stopped working after opening MAX

[PeterFoerster]

Hi Everyone,

I seriously hope this is the right forum since this issue is rather odd.

Yesterday while I was playing around with my setup consisting of a Vector VN8900 + 8970 connected to a PXI 1085 + 8880 we had some issues that were purely related to CANoe 8.5. When we got the rest bus simulation to work with CANoe we wanted to take some measurements with the SC-Express cards in the chassis so we opened NI MAX. Right as MAX started up our rest bus simulation aborted and the VN8900 was no longer reachable over USB. Resetting, reinstalling and plugging into another USB Port didn't work.

I tried the device with my Laptop which worked fine yesterday. This morning I tried it again with MAX open and it showed the same behaviour. I give it an outside chance that it has something to do with an USB Stick being pulled out at the same time (unsafe, of course), but I'm pretty sure it is caused by MAX. Is there a possibility, that MAX has somehow reserved the resource- as it was used by another software, no less- and now doesn't want to give it free? I would have expected to be able to fix this in MAX somehow, but I can't find the correct options.

Any ideas are greatly appreciated!

[TroyK]

I've used the VN8900/8970 but never on a PXI system. It should have nothing to do with NI-MAX.

What we have observed is that Vector USB hardware doesn't play nice with NI USB hardware.

On some setups we will even loose a USB keyboard and mouse when some USB device is plugged in or removed when a Vector USB device is present.

It seems to have more to do with the USB drivers than anything else. One thing that seemed to work on some systems was uninstalling flakey USB3 drivers and/or updating the BIOS and chipset drivers. But like I said, never tried it on a PXI.

If you still think MAX is the problem, have you tried resetting it? Tools > Reset Configuration Data.

[PeterFoerster]

Hi Troy,

thanks for the quick response. The problem might well be the communication with the USB driver. After all it died pretty much in the exact moment, I removed a USB Stick. 

My question is: How do I uninstall a driver if the device is no longer connected? The USB stick belonged to a colleague who will return in 2 weeks and the VN8900 is not visible in the device manager, so I can't uninstall that either.

I have tried resetting MAX yesterday, but it was no use.

[TroyK]

To remove old USB drivers of devices no longer connected I have used USBDeview in the past.

Give it a go, it might work, however I'm not sure that is the problem.

We aren't using any USB3 devices so I removed the USB3 drivers. USB2 still works with them removed.

[PeterFoerster]

That last part is a practical joke, right?

If I uninstall those, neither my mouse nor my keyboard will work until a reboot after which they're just back. (Don't ask how I know this )

Regarding the first part: This is a very useful tool, that I'm going to remember. When I installed it, it even briefly looked like it solved the problem: The device was recognized by the tool and by CANoe. I tried replicating this success on the PXI, but it didn't work. When I went back to the Laptop it wasn't recognized on the Laptop either.

In parallel to this thread I have also had some talks with Vector and they are convinced that it is a hardware problem and that I should send it in. I don't subscribe to this idea, but at this point, I'm going to send it in and have them see that it's no use. This last test has put a bit of doubt in my mind... Maybe it's a hardware problem after all.

[TroyK]

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PeterFoerster wrote: That last part is a practical joke, right?

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No I was totally serious!  Although in hindsight, considering the effect it had, I can see why it might appear that way. 

Oops, sorry for that.

It worked for me on 6 of our DELL PCs that we use for testing. We actually got to the point where we were getting BSODs.

I had to analyse the memory dumps to work out it was the USB3 drivers.  After I uninstalled them they didn't come back. Neither did the problem.