Comports not avaible on win 7

[Old Geaser]

I recently bought a computer with win 7. My other computer has win xp. I
have a weather station that can be viewed on the computer, using a sereal
port. The new computer does not have a serial port. I have 2 cables that are
ubs to serial. Both cables work on the xp computer.

When I installed the weather station on the new computer, I attached the usb
to serial cable. When setting up the weather station, you have to have the
correct comport. You can either check a comport by hand, or have it select
the correct one. There is 18 to select from. The computer cannot find any
comports, It says, no comports availed. I have tried both cables with the
same results. I have tried installing the usb cable in all empty usb slots.

Being new to win 7, I am wondering if the comports are not activated, Is
there a way to activate the comports? Any help will be appreciated. Thanks

Bert

 

[Al Smith]

I recently bought a computer with win 7. My other computer has win xp. I
have a weather station that can be viewed on the computer, using a sereal
port. The new computer does not have a serial port. I have 2 cables that are
ubs to serial. Both cables work on the xp computer.

When I installed the weather station on the new computer, I attached the usb
to serial cable. When setting up the weather station, you have to have the
correct comport. You can either check a comport by hand, or have it select
the correct one. There is 18 to select from. The computer cannot find any
comports, It says, no comports availed. I have tried both cables with the
same results. I have tried installing the usb cable in all empty usb slots.

Being new to win 7, I am wondering if the comports are not activated, Is
there a way to activate the comports? Any help will be appreciated. Thanks

Bert

If possible, update your weather station software. It's obviously
out of date. I miss my floppy drive, too, but I don't cry about
it, because this is the 21st century.

-Al-

 

[housetrained]

maybe the weather station has new drivers on it's website, maybe?

 

[Trevor]

Hi

I recently bought a computer with win 7. My other computer has win xp. I
have a weather station that can be viewed on the computer, using a sereal
port. The new computer does not have a serial port. I have 2 cables that
are ubs to serial. Both cables work on the xp computer.

When I installed the weather station on the new computer, I attached the
usb to serial cable. When setting up the weather station, you have to
have the correct comport. You can either check a comport by hand, or have
it select the correct one. There is 18 to select from. The computer cannot
find any comports, It says, no comports availed. I have tried both cables
with the same results. I have tried installing the usb cable in all empty
usb slots.

Being new to win 7, I am wondering if the comports are not activated, Is
there a way to activate the comports? Any help will be appreciated.
Thanks

Bert

I use a USB to serial adapter which works fine on W7

When plugged in it searches windows update installs its
drivers and gives me a COM 3 port.

Have a look at
http://www.ftdichip.com/Products/EvaluationKits/USB-Serial.htm

Regards

 

[Rene Lamontagne]

maybe the weather station has new drivers on it's website, maybe?

--
John the West Ham fan

(e-mail address removed)
<><

Check your BIOS and make sure that the Com ports are enabled.

Regards, Rene

 

[Seth]

I recently bought a computer with win 7. My other computer has win xp. I
have a weather station that can be viewed on the computer, using a sereal
port. The new computer does not have a serial port. I have 2 cables that
are ubs to serial. Both cables work on the xp computer.

When I installed the weather station on the new computer, I attached the
usb to serial cable. When setting up the weather station, you have to
have the correct comport. You can either check a comport by hand, or have
it select the correct one. There is 18 to select from. The computer cannot
find any comports, It says, no comports availed. I have tried both cables
with the same results. I have tried installing the usb cable in all empty
usb slots.

Being new to win 7, I am wondering if the comports are not activated, Is
there a way to activate the comports? Any help will be appreciated.
Thanks

You have to configure the USB to serial adapters first. Possibly even load
the driver if that's not happening automatically. Check with the maker of
the USB adapter for drivers and/or instructions. Once the USB adapter is
properly emulating a comm port, the weather station software should
work/configure just as before.

 

[Tim Slattery]

I recently bought a computer with win 7. My other computer has win xp. I
have a weather station that can be viewed on the computer, using a sereal
port. The new computer does not have a serial port. I have 2 cables that are
ubs to serial. Both cables work on the xp computer.

When I installed the weather station on the new computer, I attached the usb
to serial cable. When setting up the weather station, you have to have the
correct comport. You can either check a comport by hand, or have it select
the correct one. There is 18 to select from. The computer cannot find any
comports, It says, no comports availed. I have tried both cables with the
same results. I have tried installing the usb cable in all empty usb slots.

It's not an OS question, it's a hardware question. Your computer has
no serial (COM) ports. You have a cable that will plug into a USB port
and present a serial port at the other end, which you can plug your
weather station into. Fine, but you pretty surely have to load a
driver for that port emulator, not just plug the cable in. When you
bought it, it must have come with a disk of some kind that had the
driver. You could also go to the web site of the manufacturer and
download the driver from there. Once that driver is installed, your
computer will think that it has a COM port, and your weather station
will be able to find it.

 

[Old Geaser]

Thanks to those that offered this old man some advice. I found the problem
to be the serial cable software was not compatible with win 7. I have
ordered a cable and software that is compatible with win 7.

I never can understand why some people reply to inquiries like this with
sarcastic replies. I guess they like to hear their head rattle, Get a
life,

Bert

 

[DanS]

I recently bought a computer with win 7. My other computer has win xp.
I have a weather station that can be viewed on the computer, using a
sereal port. The new computer does not have a serial port. I have 2
cables that are ubs to serial. Both cables work on the xp computer.

<SNIP>

Your PC may actually have serial port on it. The last 3 motherboards I
bought over the last year, while they didn't have a DB9 on the back panel
for a serial port, there was a 2x10 header on the MB for it !!!

All you would need then would be something like this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812200515&cm_re=10
_pin_db9-_-12-200-515-_-Product

I had one laying around.

I understand you have already purchased the USB-(fake)RS232 adapter, so
the point is moot, but it would be interesting to see if your MB has one.
You can either take the cover off, or just boot into the BIOS setup and
look under 'Built-In Peripherals' or whatever your MB would call it.

For instance......the MSI P55M-GD45 motherboard lists this....

(http://us.msi.com/index.php?func=proddesc&maincat_no=1&prod_no=1890)
(I just picked this MB of the first page of NewEgg MBs.)

Back Panel I/O Ports

- 1 x PS/2 Keyboard
- 1 x PS/2 Mouse
- 2 x eSATA ports
- 1 x IEEE1394 port
- 10 x USB 2.0 ports
- 1 x RJ45 LAN Jack
- 1 x 6 in 1 audio jack

But then there's another category......

Internal I/O Connectors

- ATX 24-Pin power connector
- 4-pin ATX 12V power connector
- CPU / System x 2 FAN connectors
- CD-in connector
- Front panel audio connector
- Front panel connector
- 1 x chasis intrusion connector
- 2 x USB 2.0 connectors
- 6 x Serial ATAII connectors
- 1 x ATA133 connector
- 1 x IEEE1394 connector support additional 1 port
- 1 x Power Button
- 1 x Clear CMOS jumper
- 1 x SPDIF-out connector
- 1 x TPM module connector
- 1 x Serial port connector
- 1 x Parallel port connector

Note that it has both a serial *AND* a parallel port internally !!!!!!

So, to summarize.........while it's true that almost all motherboards
sold now do not have a serial port connector on the back, it's my guess
that the majority still have an internal serial port.

 

[Dave]

Check your BIOS and make sure that the Com ports are enabled.

Regards, Rene

Good point, while there also check to make sure each one is assigned the
correct address. It's possible they got mixed up.
Dave

 

[Dave]

Thanks to those that offered this old man some advice. I found the
problem to be the serial cable software was not compatible with win 7. I
have ordered a cable and software that is compatible with win 7.

I never can understand why some people reply to inquiries like this with
sarcastic replies. I guess they like to hear their head rattle, Get a
life,

Bert

If you haven't already purchased or installed the converter and your mobo
has a PCI slot, you might consider a PCI serial adapter card. Cost will be
the same, maybe even cheaper and a lot faster. I was using an adapter to do
a EEPROM flash which took appx 15 minutes, then switched to a card and the
time dropped to appx 1 minute.
Dave

 

[DanS]

If you haven't already purchased or installed the converter and your
mobo has a PCI slot, you might consider a PCI serial adapter card.
Cost will be the same, maybe even cheaper and a lot faster. I was
using an adapter to do a EEPROM flash which took appx 15 minutes, then
switched to a card and the time dropped to appx 1 minute.
Dave

For work we had purchased serial cards....from NewEgg they were like $14
each.

Just about all serial devices will work with a 'real' serial port, all
the time.

Some may not with a USB/Serial converter. I use an IDE/Compiler for
embedded devices that flashes the program on the embedded devices using
serial. The program actually has an option box to check if you are using
a USB-Serial adapter.....obviously, *something* is different.

 

[Nil]

Thanks to those that offered this old man some advice. I found
the problem to be the serial cable software was not compatible
with win 7. I have ordered a cable and software that is
compatible with win 7.

Good luck with that. You might find that your software will only work
with a real serial port... but who knows, you may get lucky. Windows 7
DOES support the serial port, so you may be able to buy an add-on card.
Make sure IT is supported by Windows 7, though.

If you have important software that you must run, you need to be very
wary about changing the operating system that it runs on. Many things
aren't forward compatible and old technology gets left behind. Due
diligence is called for. Do you homework. Don't assume anything.

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

Thanks to those that offered this old man some advice. I found the problem
to be the serial cable software was not compatible with win 7. I have
ordered a cable and software that is compatible with win 7.

I never can understand why some people reply to inquiries like this with
sarcastic replies. I guess they like to hear their head rattle, Get a
life,

Well, I initially didn't notice any sarcastic replies, so I reread the
thread.

OK, one guy got snide after giving you a correct answer. You got honest, if
not always correct, advice in every reply. This is a much better batting
average than one normally sees here...

I wonder whether you are being a bit too sensitive.

 

[Old Geaser]

Thanks again for the suggestions. I bought a usb RS-232 serial adapter DB9
male that is win compatible. It is coming from Usbgear in Florida. Cost was
$18.09 plus postage. Hope it works. Thanks again

Bert

 

[Windows7Guy]

Hello Old Geaser,
It is always best to check with the software manufacturer FIRST. They will tell you if they have tested the product and the version, as well as whether or not it will work with Windows 7.
In the future; check out the Windows 7 Compatibility site: (There you will find out about hardware and software compatibilty.)
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/compatibility/en-us/default.aspx
There is a pulldown from which you can choose "hardware" and "software".
There are also some great articles, instructional videos and such to help with your Windows 7 at our Springboard site:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/default.aspx
In any event a lot of the times, Vista drivers will work in lieu of Windows 7 drivers, however, it's not 100%!
As stated previously, it's best to have the Windows 7 certified drivers installed.
Thanks again,
John M.
Microsoft Windows Client Support