Technical data

Connecting Instruments to GPIB 3

Agilent Connectivity Guide 65

Agilent 488..., then select the check box labeled Enable Agilent

GPIB cards for 488 programs. This setting allows correct operation

of 488 programs with both Agilent and third-party GPIB interfaces

(even simultaneously).

If you receive errors from third-party tools (such as National

Instruments Measurement & Automation Explorer) when Agilent

488 is enabled, disable Agilent 488, use the third-party tool, then

re-enable Agilent 488.

2 Most NI-488.2 programs are written to expect the GPIB card at

board number 0 (zero). The default board numbers for Agilent GPIB

interfaces begin with zero, but for Agilent GPIB interfaces, the board

number is set independently from the VISA interface ID, so please

note that you may need to set the board number explicitly to work

with your program. To set the board number, select the GPIB

interface (the icon above your GPIB instruments) in Connection

Expert’s explorer view, then click the Agilent 488 Properties...

button in the detail (right) pane of the Connection Expert window

and set the board number in the resulting dialog box.

Disable Connection Expert Auto-Detection If your PC sound

card stops working after configuring interfaces, disable the

auto-detection process in Connection Expert, as the auto-detection

process in Connection Expert can cause sound and other cards to stop

responding. To disable the auto-detection process, click Tools >

Options... . Then de-select Automatic discovery or refresh of I/O

resources under the Configuration Settings tab.

Check BIOS/Interrupts Settings If Connection Expert reports

finding an 82350 card with Serial Number ffffffff, this is typically

caused by PCI cards not being configured properly. Try the following

steps. If these steps do not work, remove and re-install the 82350 and

then reconfigure the card.

Check BIOS Setting.

Upgrade your system BIOS to the latest version. New computers

oftentimes have newer BIOS’ available.

If your computer locks up or freezes after installing. This is typically

caused by interrupt conflicts with other drivers in the system. PCI

allows sharing of IRQs, but this also means the drivers for cards

which share an IRQ must be handling interrupt chaining properly.