Solved Need multiple COM ports

w5uy

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Location
Las Cruces, NM
Hi Everyone!
I hope this is the correct forum to request this information---here is my situation. I have two programs on my hard drive. They both require access to a COM port. When I attempt to access either one it works fine, but I need to have both of them running at the same time---thus I need an additional COM port. When I setup either program, the available port appears (COM 3). It does not allow the entry of any other port or call up an additional one---with all the COM's available, it would seem reasonable to be able to use more than one port at the time! I am using a Dell Pentium Laptop (1545) with Windows 8.1 PRO. The computer has 3G of memory. How may I accomplish this frustrating goal?
Thank You for your help

Bill in Las Cruces:confused:
 

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what device is the com ports using? on one of them you might be able to set the port to another fake com port. are they fake com ports with a usb device to begin with?
 

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COM Ports --- question

what device is the com ports using? on one of them you might be able to set the port to another fake com port. are they fake com ports with a usb device to begin with?

OK, the programs I am using are 1) Commcat (an amateur radio logging program) and 2)Fldigi (am amateur radio digitial communications program)

When either program is accessed (alone) I am only given one choice for a COM port (3). This occurs with either program.

Any ideas?

Bill
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    windows 8.1 pro
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Dell 1545
    CPU
    Pentium
    Memory
    3G
    Browser
    Firefox
    Antivirus
    Avast

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    WIN 7 PRO x64, WIN 8.1 PRO x64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Custom
    CPU
    Intel i7 4790K
    Motherboard
    ASUS Maximus VI Extreme
    Memory
    32GB(4x8GB) DDR3 Team Xtreem 2666 @ 2400 CL10 10-12-12-31
    Graphics Card(s)
    2x MSI GTX 780 Twin Frozr OC 3GB
    Sound Card
    ASUS Xonar Essence STX
    Monitor(s) Displays
    ASUS PB278Q, HP 2311xi, UN46F7100AFXZA
    Screen Resolution
    2560x1440p, 2x1080p
    Hard Drives
    256GB 840 PRO SSD
    10TB RAID 0 Array (Movies, Steam)
    6TB RAID 1 Array (Backups, Documents)
    3TB EXT Drive (Secure Backups)
    PSU
    Corsair AX760
    Case
    NZXT White Switch 810
    Cooling
    Block: XSPC Raystorm, RES/Pump: XSPC Bay res W/D5 Vario, RAD: XSPC RX360, 6xNF-F12's
    Keyboard
    Rosewill RK-9000 with MX Blue switches Logitech G15 Rev 2 (gutted for LCD)
    Mouse
    Logitech G400
    Browser
    Chrome
    Other Info
    I also own a Lenovo Y510p, and Yoga 2 Pro
I am using USB from the computer --- There are no COM ports on the laptop.

Thanks

bill in las cruces
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    windows 8.1 pro
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Dell 1545
    CPU
    Pentium
    Memory
    3G
    Browser
    Firefox
    Antivirus
    Avast
then give the virtual ones a shot.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    WIN 7 PRO x64, WIN 8.1 PRO x64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Custom
    CPU
    Intel i7 4790K
    Motherboard
    ASUS Maximus VI Extreme
    Memory
    32GB(4x8GB) DDR3 Team Xtreem 2666 @ 2400 CL10 10-12-12-31
    Graphics Card(s)
    2x MSI GTX 780 Twin Frozr OC 3GB
    Sound Card
    ASUS Xonar Essence STX
    Monitor(s) Displays
    ASUS PB278Q, HP 2311xi, UN46F7100AFXZA
    Screen Resolution
    2560x1440p, 2x1080p
    Hard Drives
    256GB 840 PRO SSD
    10TB RAID 0 Array (Movies, Steam)
    6TB RAID 1 Array (Backups, Documents)
    3TB EXT Drive (Secure Backups)
    PSU
    Corsair AX760
    Case
    NZXT White Switch 810
    Cooling
    Block: XSPC Raystorm, RES/Pump: XSPC Bay res W/D5 Vario, RAD: XSPC RX360, 6xNF-F12's
    Keyboard
    Rosewill RK-9000 with MX Blue switches Logitech G15 Rev 2 (gutted for LCD)
    Mouse
    Logitech G400
    Browser
    Chrome
    Other Info
    I also own a Lenovo Y510p, and Yoga 2 Pro
Hi there
I'm afraid this is always the trouble with legacy hardware - it gets harder and harder to find support for it. I assume your USB adapter provides access for TWO COM ports - so in theory you should have COM3 / COM4 - although I'm surprised why the machine wouldn't have given you COM1 / COM2.

Serial device processing (COM) is almost "Dinosaur Technology" these days so this is going to be a hard one.

1) Check there's nothing assigned to COM1 / COM2 -- e.g remote printers etc.
2) does your software support for the USB device give you TWO COM ports. (The DEVICE driver - not the radio application programs).

3) another solution is to launch a W7 / XP Virtual machine and at power on just assign the USB device to the VM. You can run FREE VM software (vmplayer or VBOX). You can create an XP VM by downloading the XP mode VM from Ms and extracting the XP system otherwise just use the old OS before you upgraded to W8/8.1

There's plenty of posts on the forum about using Virtual Machines and how to extract the XP system from XPMode if you go that route.

Cheers
jimbo
 

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I had this same problem with a Car Computer Reader package - But it only required one Com port. They used to make ISA cards with com ports on them, do they still make PCI cards with Com ports, you can always look at NewEgg, or Amazon for an older one, it may be rigged to work in 7, and maybe even 8.

I also found THESE: USB to COM adapters:

USB to RS422

Probablty pretty expensive though, but some of them have as many as 16 or 32 coms on them. I remember building a machine that had that many to be used for a dialup BBS to connect to the Modems. Oi Ve what a pain.

(edit) actually, the USB to Single Com port is only 16 bux.
 

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  • OS
    Windows 8 Pro with Media Center/Windows 7
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    System Manufacturer/Model
    Asus M2N-MX SE Plus § DualCore AMD Athlon 64 X2, 2300 MHz (11.5 x 200) 4400+ § Corsair Value Select
    CPU
    AMD 4400+/4200+
    Motherboard
    Asus M2N-MX SE Plus/Asus A8M2N-LA (NodusM)
    Memory
    2 GB/3GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    GeForce 8400 GS/GeForce 210
    Sound Card
    nVIDIA GT218 - High Definition Audio Controller
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Hitachi 40" LCD HDTV
    Screen Resolution
    "1842 x 1036"
    Hard Drives
    WDC WD50 00AAKS-007AA SCSI Disk Device
    ST1000DL 002-9TT153 SCSI Disk Device
    WDC WD3200AAJB-00J3A0 ATA Device
    WDC WD32 WD-WCAPZ2942630 USB Device
    WD My Book 1140 USB Device
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    Dell Keyboard
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    Microsoft Intellimouse
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    Chrome/IE 10
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    Eset NOD32 6.x/Win Defend
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    Recently lost my Windows 8 on my main PC, had to go back to Windows 7.
Are you talking about RS232? If so there are lots of cheap usb to 9 pin adapters on fleabay which might work with a modern laptop.
 

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My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 Pro with Media Center/Windows 7
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Asus M2N-MX SE Plus § DualCore AMD Athlon 64 X2, 2300 MHz (11.5 x 200) 4400+ § Corsair Value Select
    CPU
    AMD 4400+/4200+
    Motherboard
    Asus M2N-MX SE Plus/Asus A8M2N-LA (NodusM)
    Memory
    2 GB/3GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    GeForce 8400 GS/GeForce 210
    Sound Card
    nVIDIA GT218 - High Definition Audio Controller
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Hitachi 40" LCD HDTV
    Screen Resolution
    "1842 x 1036"
    Hard Drives
    WDC WD50 00AAKS-007AA SCSI Disk Device
    ST1000DL 002-9TT153 SCSI Disk Device
    WDC WD3200AAJB-00J3A0 ATA Device
    WDC WD32 WD-WCAPZ2942630 USB Device
    WD My Book 1140 USB Device
    PSU
    Works 550w
    Case
    MSI "M-Box"
    Cooling
    Water Cooled
    Keyboard
    Dell Keyboard
    Mouse
    Microsoft Intellimouse
    Internet Speed
    Cable Medium Speed
    Browser
    Chrome/IE 10
    Antivirus
    Eset NOD32 6.x/Win Defend
    Other Info
    Recently lost my Windows 8 on my main PC, had to go back to Windows 7.
COM port = serial port, usually 9 pin D sub connector or a dial up modem. If memory serves me COM1/COM3 shared IRG 4 and COM2/COM4 shared IRG 3. In the old days COM 1 would almost always be a modem so a lot of add in devices used a higher COM port assignment by default. One COM port cannot be used by two programs at the same time, not to my knowledge anyway. The one port could use two different configurations but not at the same time. To have one program use say COM1 and another COM2 you would need two com ports/devices.
 

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    VIA VT1708s High Definition Audio 8-channel Onboard
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    22" LG E2242 1080p and 2 19" I-INC AG191D
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    Crucial MX100 256 GB SSD and 500 GB WD Blue SATA
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    HP DVD1040e Lightscribe - External USB2
I'd get the USB to RS232 adapter.

Back when there were up to 4 Com ports, I used to use Com 1 for the mouse and Com 2 for the modem. I had a summagraphics tablet that was com3, I had to buy an ISA card with 2 more ports on it. It was a pain cos back then you had to set the interrupts and memory allocation manually.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 Pro with Media Center/Windows 7
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Asus M2N-MX SE Plus § DualCore AMD Athlon 64 X2, 2300 MHz (11.5 x 200) 4400+ § Corsair Value Select
    CPU
    AMD 4400+/4200+
    Motherboard
    Asus M2N-MX SE Plus/Asus A8M2N-LA (NodusM)
    Memory
    2 GB/3GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    GeForce 8400 GS/GeForce 210
    Sound Card
    nVIDIA GT218 - High Definition Audio Controller
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Hitachi 40" LCD HDTV
    Screen Resolution
    "1842 x 1036"
    Hard Drives
    WDC WD50 00AAKS-007AA SCSI Disk Device
    ST1000DL 002-9TT153 SCSI Disk Device
    WDC WD3200AAJB-00J3A0 ATA Device
    WDC WD32 WD-WCAPZ2942630 USB Device
    WD My Book 1140 USB Device
    PSU
    Works 550w
    Case
    MSI "M-Box"
    Cooling
    Water Cooled
    Keyboard
    Dell Keyboard
    Mouse
    Microsoft Intellimouse
    Internet Speed
    Cable Medium Speed
    Browser
    Chrome/IE 10
    Antivirus
    Eset NOD32 6.x/Win Defend
    Other Info
    Recently lost my Windows 8 on my main PC, had to go back to Windows 7.
I'd get the USB to RS232 adapter.

Back when there were up to 4 Com ports, I used to use Com 1 for the mouse and Com 2 for the modem. I had a summagraphics tablet that was com3, I had to buy an ISA card with 2 more ports on it. It was a pain cos back then you had to set the interrupts and memory allocation manually.

lol, my first home PC motherboard had 6 ISA slots on it. The only onboard port on it was the OLD style 5 pin keyboard port. The multi IO card had jumpers all over it for setting the serial and parallel port IRG's and addresses, plus the floppy and hard drive controller IRG settings. Serial mouse with an actual ball in it. Interesting times they were.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 Education 64 Bit
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Asus
    CPU
    AMD Phenom II X4 980 Black Edition Deneb 3.7GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS M4N68T-M V2 µATX Motherboard
    Memory
    8GB 4GBx2 Kingston PC10600 DDR3 1333 Memory
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA Geforce GT640 2 Gig DDR3 PCIe
    Sound Card
    VIA VT1708s High Definition Audio 8-channel Onboard
    Monitor(s) Displays
    22" LG E2242 1080p and 2 19" I-INC AG191D
    Screen Resolution
    1280x1024 - 1920x1080 - 1280x1024
    Hard Drives
    Crucial MX100 256 GB SSD and 500 GB WD Blue SATA
    PSU
    Thermaltake TR 620
    Case
    Power Up Black ATX Mid-Tower Case
    Cooling
    Stock heatsink fan
    Keyboard
    Logitech Wireless K350 Wave
    Mouse
    Logitech M570 Trackball and T650 TouchPad
    Internet Speed
    80 Mbps Down 30 Mbps Up
    Browser
    Internet Explorer 11
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
    Other Info
    HP DVD1040e Lightscribe - External USB2
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