- GPIB-PC User Manual for the IBM Personal Computer and Compatibles April 1988 Edition Part Number 320014-01

Appendix B Common Errors and Their Solutions
©National Instruments Corp. B-7 GPIB-PC User Manual
Other Error Conditions
Listed below are general errors which may occur when using the GPIB-
PC hardware and software.
Error Condition: Attempts to run the GPIB utility programs, IBDIAG,
IBTEST, or IBIC and returns Bad command or File Name error
from DOS. Also, the distribution files do not appear to be on the boot
disk after running IBSTART.
Solution:
• IBSTART copies the files to the subdirectory \GPIB-PC on the
boot disk. Only GPIB.COM and IBCONF.EXE are copied to
the root directory. Change to the \GPIB-PC directory with the
DOS command cd \GPIB-PC to run other programs.
Error Condition: Function call does not return and the program seems
to hang forever.
Solutions:
• Run IBCONF and confirm that the board's DMA channel and
interrupt line match the hardware settings. Then run IBTEST
after rebooting. Also check that the DMA channel and interrupt
line do not conflict with other devices in the computer.
• Check that the time limit is not set to zero, which results in
infinite time limits. To do this, run IBCONF and look at the
time limit value both for your device and your board. Or, from
IBIC, call IBTMO and pass to it the timeout argument value
you believe is correct (the default is 13, which represents 10
seconds). Assuming that the IBTMO call does not result in an
error, the previous value returned by the call will equal the
value passed to it if the time limit was what you expected.
• Check that you do not call IBWAIT for an event that may not
happen without also waiting for TIMO as well. For example, if
you fail to set the TIMO bit while waiting for RQS from a
device, and for some reason the device will not assert SRQ, the
IBWAIT call will not return.