Installation guide

Chapter 2 17
Installing the IO Libraries
Getting Started
Getting Started
This section gives guidelines to get started installing the Agilent IO Libraries,
including system requirements and supported interfaces. You should verify
that your system meets the minimum requirements shown and the system
interfaces are supported before you install the Agilent IO Libraries.
Before You Begin
Before you begin installation of the Agilent IO Libraries, please consider the
following items.
Create an
Emergency Repair
Disk
The Agilent IO Libraries include I/O drivers for various PCI plug-in cards.
Extensive testing of these drivers and cards has revealed that early
revisions of the BIOS code in several PCs are not completely PCI-compliant.
This has caused problems when running the Agilent IO Libraries, whether or
not the PCI card is installed. Problems can include system errors, operating
system crashes, or card initialization failures.
For Windows 2000/NT operating systems, most PC manufacturers
recommend that before installing any PCI card, you first create an
EMERGENCY REPAIR DISK. If your PC exhibits any abnormal behavior
following installation of the Agilent IO Libraries, we recommend a BIOS
upgrade to the PC. BIOS upgrades are available from most PC
manufacturers’ websites.
Must Configure with
IO Config Utility
Before you can use an interface with SICL or VISA, you must first configure
the interface with the IO Config utility. See Chapter 3 - Using IO
Configuration Utilites for details on IO Config. Do
not attempt to manually
edit the Windows registry to configure your interfaces for use with SICL or
VISA.
See the Readme
File
When the Agilent IO Libraries are installed, an Agilent IO Libraries Readme
file is created. This file contains very important information that you should
read BEFORE you configure IO interfaces. To access the Readme file, click
the blue IO icon (on the taskbar). Then, click View D
ocumentation and
then click I
O Libraries Readme.