quikbasic com problem on IBM thinkpad380E

[ClareSnyder]

A specialized survey data package(land surveying) written by one of my clients works just fine on his Hitachi laptop, an IBM Thinkpad 380 (running win 95) and on the desktops running Win98SE.
It will NOT communicate on the 380E, and the com port has been verified by running direct cable connection between machines.
The application connects to a handheld computer through a level converter (also verified as working) at 1200 or 9600 baud, with no flow control.Just a standard "bit-banger" interface.
Where do we start looking for the problem? Does Win98 handle communications differently than win95, so that by installing win95 on the machines they might work? Or did IBM change something in their infinite wisdom?
Any help appreciated.

 

[qbasicking]

O, i didn't see this post. I can answer that. About five or six years ago, IBM changed the configuaration of the Ports that they produced, i guess to try and get a monopoly over the market, but it failed, then they went back to the regular ports the next year.
Tandy is even worse.

 

[pebe]

qbasicking,
Can you give a bit more detail about IBM's changes?

 

[qbasicking]

I've never used them personally, but I believe that they just changed some wiring, so that it would only work with their products. But I can't tell you how to use them, I don't know.

 

[pebe]

ClareSnyder,
I have written several progs using com ports and they run on anything from Dos to win 98se, so i don't think the OS is your problem.

I don't know what you mean by a 'big banger' interface. Do you mean just using I/O? If so, the trouble may be the control wire arrangement. My progs have always talked to microcontrollers and I have disabled the standard responses expected with:
OPEN "com1:1200,N,8,1,ds,cs,rs" FOR RANDOM AS #1
That may be worth a try.