Com ports GGGRRRRR

[WiiijA]

HI
Any1 have any ideas why when I connect anything upto my com ports they are never detected!!!

The ports are enabled in the bios,and they are not sharing an irq with anything and device manager says they are fine!!,but still if I connect anything to either port it isnt detected :(,at first I thought it may be a problem with the data cable for my camera which is what I was trying to rig up to the comp but I've now also tried an old serial mouse which i know for a fact works fine and a modem and still no god damn luck.

Funny thing is I had the exact same problem with my last motherboard too and never did suss out what was going on .

Any help appreciated as ever.


regards

WiiijA

[Calzor Suzay]

When you say detected I'm assuming you don't mean plug'n'pray but more I'm running app X and it can't find me hardware kind of thing, is it just one app or lots? as it might be a software issue etc, look for an update or patch of whatever your trying to run.

You say there enabled in your bios but are they installed? Open system from the control panel and look for ports and see if there listed, next you could try dropping down the bits per second, some older apps/hardware can't handle the whizzy speeds like 115200, try 9600 and if it does work build the speed up gradually. Also you may have an IRQ conflict although this very rare as com ports have been pretty much on the same IRQ for years.

I'm rambling now and slopping my Pot noodle everywhere so I'll go :)

[FlyinBrick]

Apparently the com ports have their own input/output chip/controller, and this is extremely easy to fry! (I think there'a =5v there somewhere) Mainly due to being plugged/unplugged when the PC is still on. C'mon, we've all done it :)
The thing is, the Bios still shows them up as enabled etc. when in fact they've had it.
Best/cheapest solution is to buy a PCI com port card (about £20) these work really well and provide a good workaround.