Need Serial Comm port help!!!

[Joe Scruggs]

I'm desparately trying to play catch-up with the group messages and there
were a few things that I thought I might respond to.  The issue with the
laptop ports - did you ever get it working?  I've dealt with computers since
the mid-80's and have probably ran into more problems than anyone, except
for some computer tech's.

First of all, there has always been confusion with COM ports.  There are
hardware ports and software ports.  That is why some PC makers refer to the
hardware ports as COM A and COM B.  But people normally look at a hardware
port and think of it as COM1 or COM2.  Through your BIOS you can change any
hardware port to any software port (COM1 thru COM4).  When Win 95 and up and
plug & play features came along, they took more and more control over this
process so people would not have to mess around with their BIOS settings.
DOS still relies on the BIOS setup, so if Win 95 or any other operating
system treats the hardware port differently without changing the BIOS, DOS
will still see it the way the BIOS defines it.  That is why it can be
different from one operating system to another.

Laptops brought more problems into the picture.  They brought power
management onto the scene to extend battery life, which can affect port
control without your knowledge.  The best thing if battery life is not that
important to you is to disable it completely through your Control Panel (or
other method depending on operating system/laptop manufacturer).  The other
major hassle has been IR communications.  I have never used it, but almost
all laptops in the past decade or so offer it as a standard option (probably
so they don't get hit on a review or something like that).  The problem is
it often intereferes with communications on your COM port.  Most current
laptops offer only one hardware COM port, because the built-in modem already
uses a COM port and the IR system uses another.  You have three devices
trying to use COM1 and COM2.  You can use COM3 or COM4, but any time that
you try to use them, there will almost certainly be problems within Windows
operating systems.

The solution that I have used on several laptops with similar conflicts is
to completely disable the energy management features and the IR
communication features.  To completely disable IR you might have to disable
it in the BIOS and in Windows.  In Windows you can disable it in the Device
Manager.  Do not remove it, however.  It will only try to come back the next
time you boot.  If you do use IR comm, you can create different profiles.
If you do all of this - verify modem settings do not conflict - you should
be able to communicate through your communications port!

Joe

----- Original Message -----
From: "Andy Whittaker - Chester UK" <efi at andywhittaker.com>
To: <diy_efi at diy-efi.org>
Sent: Friday, April 06, 2001 4:12 PM
Subject: Re: Need Serial Comm port help!!!


> I've followed this thread with interest....
>
> Don't forget that a lot of laptops use CMOS ports that do not provide
enough
> power for self-powered com port interfaces.
>
> Andy.
> ------------------------------------------
> Andy Whittaker
> Chester, England.
> Email: mail at andywhittaker.com
> Web: http://www.andywhittaker.com/
> ECU Stuff: http://www.andywhittaker.com/ecu/
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Flanagan, Steve" <Steve.Flanagan at VerizonWireless.com>
> To: <diy_efi at diy-efi.org>
> Sent: Friday, April 06, 2001 7:11 PM
> Subject: RE: Need Serial Comm port help!!!
>
>
> > Jorgen,
> >
> > not yet, but when I do I will let you know if it works.
> >
> > thanks for all the help.
> >
> > Steve
>
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
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