Agilent I/O Libraries for Windows
Installation and Configuration Information

Click on the links below for information on the following subjects:

• General Information ...
• Installation and Configuration Information:
  • Install Hardware First
  • Installing IO Libraries and Configuring Interfaces
  • Supported Interfaces
  • Configuring an Agilent 82341 or Agilent 82340 GPIB Interface with EISA Computers
  • Installing an E8491 in a System with VXLink
  • I/O Configuration Options Menu Information
• Application Notes ...
• Troubleshooting Guide...
• Revision History ...

Install Hardware First

Before you install your IO Libraries software, you should install any new hardware in your computer.  After the hardware is installed, turn the computer on and allow it to boot.

If you are adding Plug&Play hardware, when you log on, Windows may display a Wizard which will guide you through the process of installing drivers for new hardware.

• 82350 PCI GPIB card
  • Windows 2000
    • The 'Found New Hardware Wizard will identify this card as a 'PCI Simple Communications Controller'
    • The driver is located in the  '\Windows 2000' directory on the IO Libraries CD
  • Windows NT 4.0
    • Since Windows NT is not a Plug&Play OS, all necessary driver installation and configuration is performed when you install the IO Libraries.
  • Windows 95 / Windows 98
    • The 'Add New Hardware Wizard will identify this card as a 'PCI Communication Device'.
    • The files needed for this device are located at the root of the IO Libraries CD.
    • After searching for a driver, Windows will find an updated driver for a 'Hewlett-Packard 82350A PCI HP-IB'.
    • Note that you may be asked insert the 'HP I/O Libraries' CD.  You should use the Agilent IO Libraries CD in this case.  The card will be identified as a Hewlett-Packard card.  This is necessary for backwards compatibility.
• E8491 VXI interface
  If you install a 1394 OHCI card and want to configure an E8491, you should install the 1394 card in the computer, connect the 1394 cable between the card and the E8491 and power up the VXI card cage before booting the computer.
  • Windows 2000
    • OHCI Card Driver:  If the 'Found New Hardware Wizard' appears and prompts you to install the driver for a 'Texas Instruments OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller', you will need to get and install the drivers for this card from the Windows 2000 CD that came with your computer.  These drivers may already be installed and in that case, the 'Found New Hardware Wizard' for this device will not appear.
    • E8491 Driver:  If the 'Found New Hardware Wizard' appears and prompts you to install the driver for a 'Hewlett-Packard HP8491A', you can find the driver for this device (1394ipt.inf) in the 'Windows 2000' subdirectory of the Agilent IO Libraries CD.
  • Windows NT 4.0
    • Since Windows NT is not a Plug&Play OS, all necessary driver installation and configuration is performed when you install the IO Libraries.
  • Windows 98
    • OHCI Card Driver:  If the 'Add New Hardware Wizard' appears and prompts you to install the driver for a 'Texas Instruments OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller', you will need to get and install the drivers for this card from the Windows 98 CD that came with your computer.
    • E8491 Driver:  If the 'Add New Hardware Wizard' appears and prompts you to install the driver for a 'Hewlett-Packard HP8491A', you can find the driver for this device (1394ipt.inf) in the 'Windows 2000' subdirectory of the Agilent IO Libraries CD.
  • Windows 95
    • OHCI Card Driver:  If the 'Update Device Driver Wizard' appears and prompts you to install the driver for a 'PCI Firewire (IEEE 1394)' card, After searching, Windows will find an updated driver for a 'HP AHA-8940 PCI to IEEE 1394 Host Controller'.  The driver needed (wn1394.vxd) can be found at the root of the IO Libraries CD.
    • E8491 Driver:  This driver will be installed automatically when you install the Agilent IO Libraries.

After the drivers for all new cards are installed, you can run 'setup' from the IO Libraries CD to install and configure the IO Libraries.

Installing IO Libraries and Configuring Interfaces

After installing any hardware and drivers needed for IO, you should then install the Agilent IO Libraries by running 'Setup' from the Agilent IO Libraries CD.

Before an interface can be used with SICL or Agilent VISA, IO Libraries must configure the interface.  This is normally done automatically during the installation or it can be done manually using the 'IO Config' utility located in the 'Agilent IO Libraries' program folder.

E8491 Configuration notes:

If, on Windows 98 or Window 2000, you attempt to configure an E8491 card but none were found on your system, make sure that all your VXI mainframes are powered on and that your 1394 cables are connected before running IO Config.  If you are still having trouble, refer to the E8491 Troubleshooting Guide

Supported Interfaces

The following table shows the IO interfaces which  are supported for 32-bit applications 
(16-bit applications are not supported):

GPIB Cards: Single CPU only	Windows 2000	Windows Me	Windows 98	Windows NT	Windows 95
82335	No	No	No	No	SICL only
82340 (see switch settings)	No	No	No	Yes	Yes
82341A (see switch settings)	No	No	No	Yes	Yes
82341B/C (see switch settings)	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
82341D (ISA PnP)	No	No	No	No	Yes
82350A (PCI PnP)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
VXI Controllers:	Windows 2000	Windows Me	Windows 98	Windows NT	Windows 95
E8491 (IEEE 1394 to VXI interface)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
E623x Embedded Pentium	No	No	No	Yes	Yes
E985x Embedded Pentium	No	No	No	Yes	No
GPIB-VXI (Agilent's and other vendors Command modules)	VISA only	VISA only	VISA only	VISA only	VISA only
Other Interfaces:	Windows 2000	Windows Me	Windows 98	Windows NT	Windows 95
E2075 (GPIO ISA) (see switch settings) Single CPU only	SICL only	No	SICL only	SICL only	SICL only
RS-232	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
SICL LAN Client and Server	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

Configuring an Agilent 82341 or Agilent 82340 GPIB Interface with EISA Computers

Some personal computers have 32-bit EISA backplanes. If you installed an Agilent 82341 or Agilent 82340 GPIB interface in an EISA slot, you may wish to run the EISA configuration utility provided with your computer.  The EISA configuration utility will assign hardware resources to the interface to avoid system conflicts.  When you ran the Agilent I/O Libraries installation Setup program, the EISA .CFG files were placed in the EISACFG directory under the SICL base directory (for example, under "C:\Program Files \Agilent\IO Libraries\\EISACFG" if you installed the SICL software in the default location).  When you run the EISA configuration utility and assign resources, be sure to use the same settings as used with the Agilent I/O Libraries configuration utility (IO Config).

Installing an E8491 in a System with VXLink

If installing E8491 IEEE 1394 to VXI Interface in a Windows 95 computer that previously had an E1483A or E1383A (VXLink Interface), there are some installation and configuration issues.

Before configuring the E8491 software, you should:

• Run IO Config and remove the existing VXLink interface.
• Edit the C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM.INI file and remove (or put a semicolon at the beginning of) the line: 'device=c:\epconnec\epcvxi.vxd' (assuming default paths).
• Delete SURM from the Windows 95 Startup folder.
• Rename (or delete) the c:\epconnec directory (assuming default paths).
• Restart your computer.

Please contact the Agilent Support for the latest information.

I/O Configuration Options Menu Information

The I/O Configuration program 'Options' menu selections:

• VISA Logging
  • Off (Default)
  • Message Viewer (Windows 95, Windows 98 and Windows Me)  Log to the Message Viewer application.
  • Event Viewer (Windows NT and Windows 2000)  Log to Windows NT/2000's Event Viewer.
  • Debug Window  Log using Windows OutputDebugString(). (This is useful in debuggers.)
• SICL Yield (Windows 95 and Windows 98)
  • False (Default)  SICL does not yield the CPU during I/O
  • True  SICL yields the CPU during I/O

Note: SICL Yield must be 'False' for proper operation of some VXIplug&play drivers. This will prevent a potential deadlock from within a Windows message handler.

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