How to configure a COMM port?

Status
Not open for further replies.

raebabe

Posts: 49   +0
I have this Dell Optiplex240 that is not reading the periferals hooked up to the COMM port. When I looked in the command prompt at the settings for the ports they were set the same and that dosn't look right to me because I thought only one is supposed to be "turned on" to work.

I have spent the last week reading anything I can on Serial Ports and I have gone to the Dell site to find out what I can about that version of BIOS and how to change the settings but there is nothing out there.

The BIOS version is A01 and the Service Tag is BRGY011.

If someone can just point me in the right direction of where to look or what to try I would be much abliged.
 
There is nothing much to configure in a serial port at OS level. The driver for the given device has to do the work.

System BIOS/PnP usually manages to get things right for comport. You can try disabling unused things in BIOS to minimise IRQ conflicts.

If you mean that Windows doesn't automatically recognise devices conncted to the serial port then this is normal. You have to manually install drivers for the whatever periphereal you are trying to hook up.

An no, you do not have to have only one serial port enabled. You can easily have 4 COM ports active in a system.
 
I loaded the drivers for the digital camera he gave me to troubleshoot with. I also went into the BIOS and turned off one of the ports but I still have the same problem. I even just changed the names from COMM 2 and 4 to COMM 1 and 3 or 2 and 3. Nothing worked.

I looked to see if there may be some drivers missing for the machine and I found all of them but the PCI drivers. I don't think the PCI drivers would have anything to do with it but it's still not reading that there is anything in the port.

I'm so confused with this because all the books in the office are from the early 90's and before so I don't even know if the information I have is correct or how outdated it is. Then when I try to go to google all I find is unapplicable junk.
 
By periferals, does that include a mouse ? Are you trying to run them from Dos or within windows, if windows what OS are you using. Look in your bios for serial ports and check com 1 is set to 3f8 and com 2 is set to 2f8. The ports are shared ie com 1-3 and com 2-4. In Windows check your device settings for any yellow conflicts.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back