What Are My COM Ports Doing? 1

[winebird]

Hi, Tek-Tips!

I have an Inspiron 5150 with a Targus port replicator. The Targus was originally on COM7, but is now on COM13 and my job-specific peripheral won't recognize it. It used to work when the port replicator was on COM7 and it works on a Toshiba with Windows 98, no port replicator, on COM1. This older machine has a 9-pin serial port, while the Inspiron does not. Which is why I use a port replicator.

I encountered a "brown-out" at a job recently, where the electrical power went to a lower level for about five minutes. Everything else works fine, and switching for a new port replicator does not fix the issue.

How can I tell what is using my COM1 through COM12? Is there a way to reset it? I think if I can get the port replicator back to COM7 it might work.

Thank you for your assistance!

 

[Frank4d]

The procedure described in this article will free reserved com port numbers in both windows 2000 and XP:

http://www.help.perle.com/index.asp?a=4&q=32

 

[winebird]

Thank you, Frank4d!

But how can I tell if my COM ports are really being used?

 

[Frank4d]

Device Manager will tell which COM port numbers are being used or are enabled, but not what devices are actually using them. Configuration utilities for the serial port devices in your system should show which COM ports are assigned though.