Appendix I Common Questions - National Instruments VXIpc-486 500 Series Getting Started

Appendix I
Common Questions
This appendix answers common questions you may have when using the NI-VXI bus interface
software on the VXIpc-486 platform. This material does not cover problems that you may have
with the system. Please see Appendix J, Troubleshooting, if you have system-related problems.
What do the LEDs on the front of the VXIpc-486 mean?
• The SYSFAIL light shows the state of the VXIbus SYSFAIL line. This line is asserted
whenever any device in the chassis has not yet passed its self-test, failed its self-test, or has
detected a failure after originally passing its self-test.
• The FAILED light indicates whether the VXIpc-486 has passed its own self-test.
• The TEST light indicates that the Resource Manager has not yet run and verified the
VXIpc-486. The TEST light will go off when the test is complete, and the ON LINE light
will come on.
• The ON LINE light means that the VXIpc-486 is ready for operation across the VXIbus.
• The ACCESS light indicates whether the VXIpc-486 is currently accessing the VXIbus.
• The DRIVE light indicates whether the hard disk is being accessed.
• The TURBO light is not used by the VXIpc-486 Model 500 series.
Refer also to Appendix C, Front Panel Indicators.
Is there something wrong with the VXIpc-486 if the red SYSFAIL and FAILED LEDs stay
lit after booting the VXIpc-486?
Most likely, the VXIpc-486 has not yet run the hardware initialization program, VXIINIT.
After it runs this program successfully, the FAILED LED should definitely turn off and, if no
other devices are asserting the backplane SYSFAIL line, the SYSFAIL LED should also turn
off. Perform the following procedure if either the SYSFAIL or FAILED LED remains lit.
1. Power off the mainframe.
2. Remove all other modules from the mainframe.
3. Make sure that the VXIpc-486 jumper settings are set correctly.
© National Instruments Corporation I-1 VXIpc-486 Model 500 Series