Keysight 488 or NI-488.2 Program Does Not Operate Correctly

This section contains information specific to the Windows product.

Problem:

A Keysight 488 (or NI-488.2–compatible) program does not run correctly. Keysight 488 calls may return ENEB (Nonexistent Board) or other errors.

Probable Causes:

Keysight 488 may be disabled. (To run NI-488.2–compatible programs with Keysight GPIB interface hardware, you must enable Keysight 488.)

The same board number may be assigned to two different interfaces.

Suggested Steps:

Remove any unneeded 488-compatible software. For example, if you are not using National Instruments interface hardware, you probably do not need the NI-488.2 library. (To run NI-488.2 programs with Keysight interface hardware, use Keysight 488.)
Enable Keysight 488: In Connection Expert, click , then Settings, then Keysight 488 Options. Select the check box labeled Enable Keysight GPIB cards for 488 programs.

In some cases, National Instruments software locks the gpib-32.dll file, preventing it from being moved or replaced. If this happens, you will see an error message and will not be able to enable Keysight 488 until the file is unlocked. To unlock the file:
1. Close all NI applications (such as MAX) and retry the operation.
2. If this is not effective, restart your PC, then immediately (before running any third-party software), run Keysight Connection Expert and enable Keysight 488 as described above.
Assign a unique board number to each GPIB interface in your test system, using Keysight Connection Expert or the configuration utility provided by your hardware vendor. See Board Number Conflict for more information.

Note that the board number (used in Keysight 488 function calls) is the numeric part of the VISA Interface ID. For example, if the VISA interface ID of your interface is GPIB1, its board number is 1.

More Information:

If Keysight 488 is disabled, you cannot use Keysight 488 or NI-488.2–compatible calls to communicate with Keysight GPIB interface hardware. You must enable Keysight 488 to use 488 calls with Keysight interface hardware.

The Keysight 488 library is disabled by default if another vendor's 488-compatible library (such as National Instruments' NI-488.2) is installed on your system. This is done to prevent error messages generated from some third-party tools. If you install third-party 488 library software (such as NI-488.2) while Keysight 488 is enabled, Keysight 488 will automatically be disabled during the installation. If you want to use Keysight 488, you must re-enable it after installing any third-party 488 library.

If you see error messages from third-party software (such as "Missing or Damaged GPIB-32.DLL" from National Instruments Measurement & Automation Explorer, NI-MAX), simply disable Keysight 488, perform the operation that caused the error message (such as configuration of a third-party GPIB card), then re-enable Keysight 488.

Technical Detail

Enabling Keysight 488 causes a dynamic-link library (DLL) called the Keysight 488 software router to be copied to the standard 488 DLL location (gpib-32.dll in your system directory). The software router directs 488 calls to the Keysight 488 DLL (kt488.dll) or to a third-party 488 DLL (gpib-32.orig.dll) as appropriate, depending on the interface invoked by the call. This allows your program to use 488 calls transparently for all GPIB interfaces in your system, regardless of vendor.

If Keysight 488 is disabled, the third-party 488 DLL (if any) is left in the default location, gpib-32.dll. All 488 calls from your program go to this third-party DLL, so only calls to that vendor's interface hardware will be successful.