OT Com port user indentification

Way way OT of course, but I have a problem with my laptop, whenever I try to use Com1 (on board port) I get the message it is already in use, but I can't find which program is supposedly using it. Does anyone know of any program / tool that can tell me what's captured the com port?

I'm using XP Prof. SP2

Thanks alot!

Andrew

1986 110 V8 CSW
Reply to
Andrew T.
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Bloody h*ll... always hitting "reply (user)" rather than "reply group" with Outlook Express...

So, as I already said, I'm *really* not sure about this, but I think that dialup modems used to hog a port even if they were internal. Are you on dialup by any chance?

Geo

----- Original Message ----- From: "Andrew T." Newsgroups: alt.fan.landrover Sent: Monday, April 16, 2007 1:43 PM Subject: OT Com port user indentification

Reply to
Geo

Thanks for the idea, but no I'm not on dial up, and my internal modem is pretending to be com 3.

Of course it used to work some time ago..... so something is hogging it now. I have all the spyware / anti virus etc loaded and up-to-date, so I don't think it's anything like that. Now thinkinig about it, it might have started around when I installed SP2...

Andrew

Reply to
Andrew T.

Press CTRL+ALT+DEL to get the windows task manager.

Click on the processes tab at the top.

Have a look down the list and see if you can spot anything that might have a hint in its name...ie...comdrv or modem or something.

Do you have/have had anything that used the com port? touchscreen/ serial mouse, etc?

Reply to
Vertuas

good idea, but I can't see anything obvious that I don't recognise. I have 4 more com ports to play with (2 on PCMCIA and 2 on USB), but occaisionally I need them all + Com1 (I'm a building controller PLC programmer), plus its just bugging me that I can't figure out whats got com1. It would be great it there was a little tool out there that could tell me what was using each port, even just the process name, but I can't find anything via google etc.

Cheers,

Andrew

Reply to
Andrew T.

Try this....

start | run

type msinfo32 and click run....

when the window opens, there'll be a list of opens on the left, expand the components one.

then expand the ports one.

there should be a list of your serial ports.

click on Com1, and look at the info on the right.....maybe the top line will tell you.

does this help?

Reply to
Vertuas

Thanks again , but no did not give any hints, 'fraid not, useful tool though! there is a screen shot of the com port details on here:-

formatting link
I will go through the start-up system to stop anything loading and go from there. Hyper terminal won't ven open the com 1 so its not just the prog I normally use.

cheers,

Andrew

Reply to
Andrew T.

Windows will only let one application use the port at a time, so even HT won't be allowed access.

The port could be being opened by a windows Service type application, just in case you don't find anything in the startup stuff.

Reply to
Vertuas

I did not have any sucess with startup stuff, all that was there I recognised, though I did startup with nothing and it was still the same. I suppose it is possible that the port is buggered. which it might as well be if I can't open it!

Thanks alot for your help though.

Andrew

Reply to
Andrew T.

............

Since you mentioned startup, try this one:

formatting link
you can have a somewhat betterlook at what's starting when you boot up. If that doesn't help... Btw, since you mentioned a PLC programmer, could it be that some bit of software related to it hogs the port in some way? From personal experience some of these tools are relatively difficult to use and allow for easily making silly errors (ok, so I don't read manuals....)

Geo

Reply to
Geo

Assuming you are displaying two ports ( com 1 and 3 ) its possible that you have a detection error com 1 and 3 like 2 and 4 share the same IRQ's and windows occasionally tries to overlap them. There are a couple of possibilities to try the simplest is to delete both in the hardware manager and then allow windows to redetect them . If they still come up as a pair (odd or even irq) then delving into the bios to reassign a different irq to one or other is probably required.

Derek be thankful of plug and play in days gone by we had to change the irq and memory address manually by moving jumpers and I don't mean wooley ones.

Reply to
Derek

Hi Andrew,

Just had a look at your sysinfo - have a closer look about 80% of the way down the page and you will see the serial port is a "Brain Boxes Serial port". That's not what I'd have expected at all!!!

What I would recommend as a serious techie is that you delete all references to serial ports from the device manager and let the OS find them all again - it could be an old bit of hardware (USB to serial adapter?) has left some stuff lying about.

The best way is this

  1. Start a command prompt
  2. at the command prompt, type in : set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1 (Enter) N.B. spelling is critical as are the underlines!
  3. at the command prompt, type in: devmgmt.msc (Enter)
  4. You should get the Device Manager loaded. Go to the view menu, and select "Show Hidden Devices"
  5. In the device tree, go to ports, and expand the list out. Any non- present devices will be now shown but greyed out.
  6. Suggest you delete anything that says "Communications Port (COMx)", and anything with "Brain Boxes Serial port". In theory, you should be able to delete all the ports in this section, and they will be found on next reboot, but Bluetooth ports in my experience are a bit dodgy!
  7. Restart your computer and your system should then find any ports it does not have drivers for.

Incidentally, this trick with the "set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1 " is useful if you ever change your network card, and are then told that the IP address is already in use when you try and set the IP address on the new card. Using this setting, you can remove the old network card settings and then you don't get the warning.

Hope this helps Graham Carter Harare Zimbabwe

Reply to
Graham Carter

Have a look in your bios do you have infra-red on the laptop and is it turned on its normally very good at picking up com 1?

Reply to
JD

I took a look at the startupCPL, looks good, but I've already got a tool that shows the same level of info (Windows Startup Inspector) - regarding PLC tools, these are ones I've been using for years, and I'm closer to development rather than just programming of PLC's so generally know what they are doing (most of the time!)

Andrew

Reply to
Andrew T.

Brainboxes is the name of the PCMCIA com port card, so this is OK, it is a laptop with only com1 on board, I have the following:-

Com 1 - on board port Com 2 - not present Com 3 - on board modem uses it Com 4 - usb com port Com 5 + 6 PCMCIA brainboxes card Com 7 - EIB bus port Com 8 - RS485 port

But I will try your set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1 idea, I like to be able to see all that XP has inside.

Andrew

Reply to
Andrew T.

irq shouldn't be a problem, as only com 1 is on-board, all others are PCMCIA or USB. And I do remember the jumper days, oh happy days they were too :-))

Andrew

Reply to
Andrew T.

Don't think mine has IR, but I will take a look, its just this kind of thing I think is causing the problem (apart from a genuinely faulty hardware of course)

Andrew

Reply to
Andrew T.

Could be the OB modem, Com1 com3 are often indestinguishable. Disable the OB modem in the BIOS?

Reply to
GbH

Ah but you have also got a device on com 3 onboard modem potentially that could be the problem worth its checking the resources in the hardware manager just in case . Derek

Reply to
Derek

might be worth a try.

From control panel open system applet, hardware tab, device manager.

expand "ports (COM & LPT)"

double click communications port (com1) to open the properties page.

click port settings tab

click advanced

change comport number to Com 2 (Combo box a the bottom)

windows will complain as it thinks that the port is in use, but click yes anyway.

What ever was connecting to com one won;t anymore as it is now com 2. Just check that you can connect to com 2.

Not sure this will work but its worth a try.

Regards

Vertuas

Reply to
Vertuas

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