Upgrade to Studio 5000 and can no longer go online with PLCs

Hi Everyone,

I think I've resolved the problem myself for now, so this is more informational for anyone else that might run into this same issue. But I'm also still puzzled about what happened, so comments and theories are welcomed!

Before upgrading from RSLogix5000 version 20.01.01 to Studio5000 version 21.03.01 everything was working fine. After the upgrade, I could no longer go online with any of the PLCs (L71, L61, and L55) because RSWho no longer recognizes them. I think it may have been a firewall issue because Studio 5000 is a different program name than our firewall allows. It's a big ordeal to get this added to our firewall, so I decided that I needed to go back to my prior configuration until I could get a response from our IT group.

I tried uninstalling V21, but that did not help.
I rebooted, but that did not help.
I tried to repair the V20 installation, but that gave me an error saying that a newer version of something was installed (sorry, I forgot to note what the message said).
I uninstalled version 20 and reinstalled, but ran into the same error.
I ran the V20 install again and this time it worked, but I still couldn't go online with the PLCs.
I verified that RSLogix was running with administrator rights. It was, but the problem persisted.

I looked at RSLinx (version 3.51.01) and it was seeing the PLC's just fine. I don't know why, but I decided to add a new Ethernet driver to the list. When I did that, the RSWho in RSLogix5000 started working!

I'm now able to go online again using version 20.01.

I don't dare try to go back to version 21 right now, so I can't test to see if the same thing will work with it.

If anyone has any ideas about what happened, I'd love to know for future reference.

I am sure others can offer more detail but the Minor revision between the two caused the problem. 21.03 will not communicate with 21.01. and .01 will not talk to .03 They are different beast. I believe it also requires the processor to be flashed to version .03 to work with the .03 software. Most all stay clear of that revision. There are other threads on this very subject.

Thanks for your answer, cwal61. I remember reading about that and it was in the back of my mind - I'll be sure to avoid that version in the future.

But I'm still puzzled about why going back to version 20.01 wouldn't work until I added a new driver to RSLinx. It seems that something had to be reinitialized there, but I don't know what.

This is strictly a guess but here I go.
I think the firewall conclusion as to why you couldn’t go online with Studio5000 is probably a pretty solid conclusion however;
When Studio5000 was installed, it went and looked at all of the different files that it uses including ones related to RSLinx drivers. One (or more) of those files (probably within RSLinx) was now updated to be compatible with Studio5000. When you rolled back to RSLogix5000 the file in RSLinx related to the existing running driver was still setup to be compatible with Studio5000 so when RSLogix5000 was attempting to use it, it was no longer setup correctly. When you created a new Ethernet driver and linked RSLogix5000 to it (using the “who active” for example) RSLogix5000 set the link up (between RSLinx and RSLogix) so it works.
Now, having thought of that (as I write) I wonder what would have happened if after you installed Studio5000 you dumped the Ethernet driver(s) in RSLinx and created new one(s). Did it fail the first time not because of firewall issues but because it (the Ethernet driver) had been linked to RSLogix5000?

I ran into a similar problem when I was installing RSLogix Emulate 5000 and spent some time trying to get my laptop to communicate with the Emulate progarmme.
I then discovered that I could not go online with PLCs at all, so tried to repair Linx, Logix5, Logix5000 to no avail.
Techsupport were then called, and I sent them all manner of files/diagnostics/installed software lists, and eventually they sent me a 14 page email of things to try.
After 2 days of trying these things and chalking them off as "didnae work", I ended up with the last one, I could not get the link they gave me to work. I then got an email from Rockwell to say "that as you have not contacted us re your issue, then we assume it is resolved and your case is closed".
The last link was to do with the "*.pfv" files for Patch Lists Validation, which was to tell me which patches had been installed and were or were not compatible with each other.
Never got that to work either, and thankfully I had an image of my hard drive saved elsewhere (due to previous Rockwell issues) so I loaded that onto a new hard drive and ditched the faulty one.

Now that I read what you say, I may get the old hard drive out and try playing with the RSLinx setup just to see if I can resolve the issue.