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Troubleshooting

The failures engineers actually hit, in the order they hit them, with the fix rather than a description of the symptom.

An instrument will not connect

Symptom	Cause	Fix
Scan finds nothing at all	No vendor VISA runtime installed.	Install Keysight IO Libraries Suite or NI-VISA. This is the layer that enumerates instruments and TestFlow cannot ship it for you.
Scan finds the instrument, connection test fails	Another program has the session.	Close the vendor’s bench software. Most instruments allow one session at a time.
Connects then times out on every query	Wrong protocol, or the instrument is in local lockout.	For LAN, check socket versus INSTR in the programming guide. Take the instrument out of local mode.
Worked yesterday, fails today	DHCP moved a LAN instrument, or a USB serial changed.	Rescan and update the address. Give LAN instruments a static address or a reserved lease.
Test connection does nothing in the browser	Not a fault.	The VISA layer is in the desktop app. The browser offers the download instead.

Symptom	Cause	Fix
It used the wrong instrument	Two instruments could match the role you named.	Name the model, not the role. “The E36313A”, not “the source”.
It measured nothing	No configured instrument could take the measurement.	Add the measurement instrument to your bench, then ask again. It builds stimulus-only rather than inventing a meter.
A correction rewrote the whole test	The turn was unscoped.	Select the steps it should touch and use edit scope.
It keeps editing my workflow when I want documentation	The target chip is on Build.	Lock it to Plan.
It wrote a document when I asked for pass/fail	The request read as prose about the test.	Ask for limits, columns, or tolerances explicitly. Those words route to the Report.
It said it cannot do something you know it can	The target chip is locked.	The chip shows a one-click Switch to Build.

Start by reading which of the five statuses you got, because they mean different things.

Status	What to do first
failed	Nothing is broken. A reading was outside its band. Open the Report and look at which column and which iteration.
error	Read the log. An instrument, a connection, or the generated code failed. The full log is in Output/, and the view is truncated.
unknown	The run ended without reporting. Usually a crash or a killed process. The log is the only source.
stopped	You stopped it.
No outcome available	The workflow changed since that run, or the run happened in a browser tab that is now closed. Run it again.

1
Check the settle time first
A reading taken before the rail settles measures the transient. This is the single most common cause of a good part looking bad. Add or lengthen the delay before the measurement.
2
Check the measurement function
AC and DC are different measurements. So are peak-to-peak and RMS. Open the step and read the action.
3
Check the wiring against the schematic
A correct sequence measures the wrong node perfectly if the probe is on the wrong pin.
4
Check the limit, not just the reading
A limit with a missing tolerance produces no verdict rather than a failure. If a run has fewer verdicts than measurements, that is why.
5
Check the ranging
An autoranging meter mid-sweep can be slower than your delay. Fix the range in the instrument step if the readings are noisy at range boundaries.

Symptom	Cause	Fix
A driver approval prompt keeps appearing	The workflow’s structure changed.	Expected. Approval is keyed to structure so a real change re-prompts. Retuning a value does not.
Code did not regenerate after an edit	You changed a value, not the structure.	Correct behaviour. The codegen path only re-runs when the shape of the test changes.
The generated driver looks wrong	It is generated, and you are the reviewer.	Do not approve it. Say what is wrong in chat and it will be rewritten.
The package will not run outside TestFlow	Missing dependencies.	Install `Script/requirements.txt` and run `run_workflow.py` from the package root.

Tell us, with the project id from the project menu. That id lets us look at the exact workflow rather than at a description of it.

Ask in the builder