Comm Port 1 Usage

  • Thread starter Thread starter Dalayce
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Dalayce

How do I determine which process is using a comm port? I
have a piece of software (QuickDesigner from Digital)
which needs access to my serial comm port 1, but it keeps
telling me comm port 1 is in use when there are no other
applications running that could tie up that port.

I have contacted Digital's support desk and they have
indicated that it must be a Windows issue and that I
should investigate system level processes that may
be 'hogging' the comm port. How do I do this?

Thanks,
Dalayce
 
Dalayce said:
How do I determine which process is using a comm port? I
have a piece of software (QuickDesigner from Digital)
which needs access to my serial comm port 1, but it keeps
telling me comm port 1 is in use when there are no other
applications running that could tie up that port.

I have contacted Digital's support desk and they have
indicated that it must be a Windows issue and that I
should investigate system level processes that may
be 'hogging' the comm port. How do I do this?
Click to expand...

Try this:

Start/Run/cmd <ENTER>

At the Command Prompt, type:

attrib -s -h -r c:\boot.ini <ENTER>

and then:

notepad c:\boot.ini <ENTER>

Under the [operating systems] section, add the /noserialmice
option, i.e.:

[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional" /NoSerialMice:COM1

Save the changes to boot.ini, exit Notepad, then reapply its
file attributes:

attrib +s +h +r c:\boot.ini

Reboot and see if that fixes the problem.

Rick
 
Hi Rick,

Didn't seem to make any difference.
Is there any way to find out what is 'using' that comm
port?
-----Original Message-----
How do I determine which process is using a comm port? I
have a piece of software (QuickDesigner from Digital)
which needs access to my serial comm port 1, but it keeps
telling me comm port 1 is in use when there are no other
applications running that could tie up that port.

I have contacted Digital's support desk and they have
indicated that it must be a Windows issue and that I
should investigate system level processes that may
be 'hogging' the comm port. How do I do this?
Click to expand...

Try this:

Start/Run/cmd <ENTER>

At the Command Prompt, type:

attrib -s -h -r c:\boot.ini <ENTER>

and then:

notepad c:\boot.ini <ENTER>

Under the [operating systems] section, add the /noserialmice
option, i.e.:

[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Microsoft
Click to expand...
Windows 2000 Professional" /NoSerialMice:COM1
 
Dalayce said:
Hi Rick,

Didn't seem to make any difference.
Is there any way to find out what is 'using' that comm
port?
Click to expand...

Is your serial port enabled and set to COM1? This will be a setting in the
system BIOS. You can check the status of the COM ports by doing the
following:

Right-click My Computer
Click Properties
Click Hardware
Click Device Manager

Open Ports (COM & LPT)

Choose COM1 (if it exists)

Right-click COM1 and choose Properties
Click Resources

What (if any) are the values here? Best values are I/O 03F8-03FF, IRQ 04

If this is the case, make sure your Communication software is set to use
these values for Com1.

Let me know if any of this helps.
 
Hey Mike,

Serial Port is enabled and set as Com 1 with the IRQ and
i/o loc you specified. The software (QuickDesigner) is
set to look for the same baud, parity, stop bits and flow
control.

The stupid thing is that it's showing com 3 as available
(which is where my onboard modem is tied to) but not com 1.

The QuickDesigner software works fine on a different
laptop running win95, but I'd like to get it working on
the new win2K laptop as well so I can continue to use the
software when the old win95 dinosaur finally packs it in.

Thanks,
Dalayce
 
Dalayce said:
Hey Mike,

Serial Port is enabled and set as Com 1 with the IRQ and
i/o loc you specified. The software (QuickDesigner) is
set to look for the same baud, parity, stop bits and flow
control.

The stupid thing is that it's showing com 3 as available
(which is where my onboard modem is tied to) but not com 1.
Click to expand...

Is the modem also using IRQ4 by any chance?
 
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