FlukeView® Forms Software Frequently Asked Questions

Installation Problem: Setup program aborts with message "Error installing iKernel.exe (0x800)"

Occurs with FlukeView Forms Versions: 1.5 and above
Occurs on Windows Platforms: Windows 2000, Windows XP

Symptoms:

Explanation / Solution:

Installation Problem: "Incorrect Installation" error message on Windows NT 4.0

Workaround: Not enough room on C: drive to install FlukeView Forms

Q: My PC has no serial port, only USB ports. How can I use the Fluke IR Serial cable to communicate with my meter?

A: Some PCs being manufactured today come with USB ports instead of serial communications ports. If this is the case, you may need extra hardware to be able to connect your FlukeView Forms IR cable to your PC.

The possible solutions to this problem depend on what meter you are communicating with:

For Fluke 180 series DMMs, Fluke 789 ProcessMeters, Fluke 1653 Electrical Installation Testers, and Fluke 1550B MegaOhmMeters:

Fluke now offers a USB-IR cable that allows FlukeView Forms to communicate to these meters via the PC's USB port. Beginning with FlukeView Forms 3.0, the FlukeView Forms model FVF-SC2 and FlukeView Forms Basic ship with the USB-IR cable.

If you have an earlier version of FlukeView Forms for these meters, that shipped with an IR-Serial cable instead of the USB-IR cable, you have three options:

• Purchase a USB-IR cable separately from a Fluke distributor. Ask for the Fluke IR189USB cable.
• Use or purchase a 3rd party USB serial adapter, as described in the section below.
• E-mail fvfupgrade@fluke.com for more information.

For Fluke 53/54-II Thermometers, Fluke 87/89-IV DMMs, or the Fluke 45:

The IR serial cables (or RS43 serial cable, in the case of the Fluke 45) that are shipped with FlukeView Forms for these meters are designed to be attached to a DB-9 (male) serial communications port on your PC. Power for the Fluke IR adapter is provided by the serial port handshake lines.

Some PCs being manufactured today come with USB ports instead of serial communications ports. If this is the case, you will need extra hardware to be able to connect your FlukeView Forms IR cable to your PC.

The cheapest and easiest solution will probably be to purchase a USB DB-9 serial adapter. These adapters allow you to attach a serial communications cable to a USB port. They come with software drivers that transparently allows serial communication to be performed via the USB cable.

Adapters that do not support the serial port hardware handshake lines (DTR and RTS) will not power the IR adapter and thus will not work. We recommend you check with the mfg to insure they provide drivers for your Windows operating system and that they support the DTR and RTS control lines.

Fluke has tested a number of USB /serial adapters with FlukeView Forms and the FlukeView Forms IR serial and RS43 serial cables. While we are not able to endorse or recommend specific adapters, the following adapters allowed successful communications between FlukeView Forms 2.0 and supported Fluke Meters during our testing:

• Keyspan USB PDA Adapter
• Keyspan High Speed USB Serial Adapter
• Belkin USB Serial Adapter (F5U103)
• Inside Out Networks' Edgeport/1 and Edgeport/2 USB to Serial Converters

Q: Is FlukeView Forms compatible with data saved in earlier versions?

Relevant FlukeView Forms Versions: FlukeView Forms 1.5 and above

A: Yes. Any FlukeView Forms database files (*.fdb) and form template files (*.ftf) created in earlier versions of FlukeView Forms can be read by later versions of FlukeView Forms.

Open the older databases from "Open Database..." in the File menu of FlukeView Forms or FlukeView Forms Designer; if the format of the databases differs from that used by the current version of FlukeView Forms, the database will be converted, while a backup of the original database will be saved as well.

Older form template files can be imported from "Import..." in the File menu of FlukeView Forms Designer.

Installation Problem: "Unable to set file permissions" error message occurs during installation on German, French or Spanish versions of Windows 2000 or Windows XP

Occurs With FlukeView Forms Versions: FlukeView Forms 1.5 or 1.6, FlukeView Forms for the 89-IV, and FlukeView Forms for the 53/54-II
Fixed in: FlukeView Forms 2.0
Occurs on Windows Platforms: German, French or Spanish versions of Windows 2000 and Windows XP

Problem Summary:

• Installed on a German, French or Spanish version of Windows 2000 or Windows XP, and
• Installed on a hard drive formatted as NTFS (as opposed to FAT or FAT32)

Under these circumstances, FlukeView Forms will not install correctly, and will not be able to run unless you are logged in with Administrator privileges.

Symptoms:

1. During the installation of FlukeView Forms, just after all files are copied to the hard disk, an error message appears stating (approximately) "Setup Program Internal Error: Unable to set file permissions for ".

   Here is the message that appears during installation under Windows 2000 German:
   

   Note:This error message can occur when no problem exists; specifically, when FlukeView Forms is installed on a hard drive which is formatted as FAT or FAT32. In this case, the error message can be ignored - the second symptom will never appear, and no problem exists.

2. After FlukeView Forms is installed (the user has rebooted the PC, and logged in a second time with Administrator rights), FlukeView Forms will work fine when run in an account with Administrator rights.

   However, if you attempt to run FlukeView Forms without Administrator privileges, you receive an error message saying that FlukeView Form was unable to open the database. Specifically: "Error opening the database. Internal database access error. The operation could not be completed. [80004005,3051]".

   Here is the error message under Windows 2000 German:
   

   After reporting this message, FlukeView Forms appears, but no forms are displayed, and no database name appears in the title bar across the top of the application. Any attempts to open a different database will fail.

Explanation:

Thus, an error is reported when cacls is run during installation, and on NTFS drives, the Fluke directory permissions are not set correctly.

FlukeView Forms versions earlier than 1.5 were written before Windows 2000 and XP were released, and do not attempt to set the file permissions at all.

This problem has been fixed in FlukeView Forms 2.0.

Solution:

If the type of "File system:" is NTFS, proceed with the steps below. If it is not an NTFS drive, you have received one of the infrequent "false symptoms" mentioned above; FlukeView Forms has installed correctly, or you have had a different installation problem.

The steps to fix to this problem are quick and easy, and require no re-installation of FlukeView Forms.

1. Login to Windows 2000 or XP with Administrator privileges.
2. Determine the directory that FlukeView Forms is installed in. (The default is usually "javascript:void(null);").
3. Open a Command Prompt window.
4. Type the following command in the Command Prompt window, replacing with the directory FlukeView Forms is installed in:

On German Windows, type:
cacls "<FlukeView directory>" /T /E /G VORDEFINIERT\Benutzer:C

On French Windows, type:
cacls "<FlukeView directory>" /T /E /G BUILTIN\Utilisateurs:C

On Spanish Windows, type:
cacls "<FlukeView directory>" /T /E /G BUILTIN\Usuarios:C

For almost any other version of Windows (English, Japanese, Chinese, Italian, etc.), the problem will not occur unless you are installing either of the two earliest versions of FlukeView Forms: FlukeView Forms for the 89-IV or FlukeView Forms for the 53/54-II. In that case, type:
cacls "<FlukeView directory>" /T /E /G BUILTIN\Users:C

For example, if FlukeView Forms was installed in the default directory in German, the command to type would be:
cacls "javascript:void(null);" /T /E /G VORDEFINIERT\Benutzer:C

This will solve the problem. All the files in the Fluke directory and its subdirectories will have the proper file permission ACLs set. The next time you login to Windows without Administrator privileges, you will be able to run FlukeView Forms without a problem.

Installation Problem: "Runtime Error!" error message under Windows NT 4.0

Occurs With FlukeView Forms Versions: FlukeView Forms for the 89-IV, and FlukeView Forms for the 53/54-II
Fixed in: FlukeView Forms 1.5
Occurs on Windows Platforms: Windows NT 4.0

Symptoms:

Explanation:

It also requires that you login with Administrator privileges a second time, immediately after your PC reboots following the installation of FlukeView Forms. This is so that the MDAC software can finish configuring the database components. Failing to login a second time with Administrator privileges is the most common reason for MDAC installation failure, and is almost certainly the reason you would see this error message.

Solution:

Installation Problem: FlukeView Forms installation program does not detect Administrator Privileges correctly

Occurs With FlukeView Forms Versions: FlukeView Forms for the 89-IV, and FlukeView Forms for the 53/54-II
Fixed in: FlukeView Forms 1.5
Occurs on Windows Platforms: Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000 and Windows XP

Symptoms:

Explanation:

Workaround:

1. Verify that you are logged on with Administrator privileges. If you aren't, the installation program will not work correctly.
2. Instead of running z:\install.exe (where z: is the FlukeView Forms location on the CD-ROM), run z:\\Disk1\setup.exe. For instance, for English, it would be z:\English\Disk1\setup.exe.
3. Setup will operate as it normally does.
4. After the PC reboots following FlukeView Forms installation, remember that you must login on the account with Administrator privileges a second time! This allows the Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC) setup program to complete its installation successfully.

HOW TO: Troubleshooting meter communication errors

Relevant FlukeView Forms Versions: All Versions

Symptoms:

Specifically, the meter communication icon on the lower-right corner of FlukeView Forms shows that there is no meter detected by the software:

If a meter is connected, and the FlukeView Forms software detects the meter, the meter communications icon changes to this:

Explanation / Solution:

Is the meter on?

Have you connected the cable to the correct serial port of the PC?

Is the IR/serial cable attached firmly to the serial port on the PC?

Is the IR/serial cable attached firmly to the meter?

Is another Windows application blocking FlukeView Forms from using this COM port?

Are the batteries in the meter low?

Software Problem: FlukeView Forms exits with an "Illegal Operation" error under Windows 95, 98 or Windows Me

Occurs With FlukeView Forms Versions: All Versions Windows Platforms: Windows 95, 98 and Windows Me

Symptoms:

• Problem occurs only on Windows 95, Windows 98, or Windows Me systems which are configured with a faulty printer driver (usually from Hewlett-Packard)
• A Program Exception occurs in FlukeView Forms, most often when:
  • selecting "Zoom In" from the right-click menu of a Logged Readings Graph.
  • Uploading data from meter memory

Keywords which appear in the Exception error message for this problem:

• SEH c0000090"
• exception 10H"
• module PEGRP32A.DLL" or "module PESGO32A.OCX"

To repeat the problem:

1. Start FlukeView Forms with the sample.fdb database.
2. Open the "Generic Logging Form" form template.
3. Select a saved form for the "Generic Logging Form" (such as "Power Supply Test") Logged data is now displayed in the Logged Readings Graph of the form.
4. Right-click on the Logged Readings Graph and select "Zoom In"
5. A GPF Error message "This program has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down" appears. Clicking on the "Details>>" button of the message box provides the following information:

"FVFORMS caused an exception 10H in module PEGRP32A.DLL..."

Note: This problem does not occur when performing a "drag zoom" on the graph, as described in in Tutorial #2, "Formatting Meter Data on a Form".

Cause of problem:

The small number of printer drivers which we have confirmed cause this problem are all Hewlett-Packard printer drivers. They are all drivers that use the PCL printer language. If you are using a H-P Postscript driver for your printer, this problem will not occur.

Also, these problems appear to only occur with drivers installed from the HP printer's software CD-ROMs, or downloaded directly from H-P. The drivers for HP printers that are installed from Windows 95, 98 or ME CD-ROMs do not have this problem. They can often be identified by a "(MS)" suffix to the driver name (e.g., "HP DeskJet 1200C (MS)")

Our current list of problem printer drivers are:

Microsoft has reported problems with other printer drivers (including drivers from companies other than Hewlett-Packard), but we have no reports of problems with these printers as of yet.

How to confirm that problem is caused by printer driver:

1. Install a "safe" printer driver on your PC (e.g., HP DeskJet 550C, or any PostScript printer driver) on a local printer port. Even though you do not have the actual printer attached, you can still install the printer (and thus, the printer driver) on Windows.

   To do so, go to the Windows Control Panel and select "Printers". Then select "Add Printer", and install one of the "safe" printers mentioned above. You may be asked by the Add Printer Wizard for your Windows CD-ROM, to install the printer drivers from.

   Remember to select "No" when you're asked if you want to print a test sheet. (Since you don't actually have the printer attached.)

2. Make the "safe" printer your default printer.
3. Reboot your PC.
4. Attempt to recreate the problem with FlukeView Forms, as outline in the "to repeat the problem" section above. The problem should no longer occur.

How to resolve the problem:

• The best solution is to resolve this by using an updated version of the printer driver that does not have this problem. Unfortunately, most of the printer drivers that exhibit this problem are the latest ones available for download from Hewlett-Packard's web site.

  In general, if there is a printer driver available for your printer on your Windows 95, 98 or Me CD-ROM, use that. Delete your current printer, and re-install the printer driver from the Windows CD-ROM. These printer drivers do not exhibit this problem.

• If there is no driver for your printer on the Windows 95/98/Me CD-ROM, or you need to use the flawed printer drivers to use certain printer functionality, there is another option. Windows 95, 98 and Me allow you to switch off the floating point hardware, and perform floating point calculations in software. (This can cause some decrease in numeric calculation speed, depending on the amount of numeric processing you do on your PC, and the speed of your computer's CPU.)

To switch off the floating point hardware on Windows 95, 98 and ME:

1. Go to the Control Panel, and open the System applet.
2. Select Device Manager tab, and open "System devices". Double-click on "Numeric data processor." The Numeric data processor dialog appears.
3. Click on the "Settings" tab. At the bottom, click on the "Never use the numeric data processor" radio button.
4. Click OK on all of the open dialog boxes. Windows will reboot.

The problem should no longer occur, irregardless of what printer driver you are using.

Other workarounds

For further information

FlukeView Forms Designer gives you the opportunity to customize forms and create your own templates for Fluke View Forms. FlukeView Forms Designer is shipped with FlukeView Forms, but is not included in FlukeView Forms Basic.

There are no FAQs for FlukeView Forms Designer at this time.