Trying to make 4 Com ports work.

[jlizard]

Ok I am stumped. At work I have a Gateway P5-166 w/32 Mb of RAM, 2.1 Gb HD, 3Com 3C509 NIC, STB Virge GX Video Card, and a generic parrallel/serial port card. This Machine is used to upload programs to PLCs (CNC Machines). We would like to have all for com ports for reasons to do with the software. Any way I haver configured the motherboard com ports to be as follows: Primary port is at Com4/IRQ 3 The Secondary port is at Com3/IRQ 4. The generic board is as follows: Primary port is Com1/IRQ 5, secondary is<br>

Com2/IRQ 9. There are no conflicts showing in the Windows 95 System Properties. And Windows 95 recognizes all four ports. But when I try to communicate through either of the secondary ports nothing happens. I have tried hooking up a modem and having Windows search for a modem on all ports and still no luck with com2 or com3. Any suggestions?????

 

[DaveGoTech]

The best way to try and narrow it down is to start over again. Remove all the COM ports from Win95.<br>
Remove the NIC from WIN95. Shut down. Physically remove the add-on COM ports and NIC from the<br>
machine. Start Windows. Windows should recognize the factory-installed COM ports and set them<br>
up accordingly. If not, add them manually to Win95. Test them!<br>
Once that's working, add your additional COM ports & see what happens.

 

[ReBooted]

Try Configuring the ports correctly........<br>
<br>
com 1 = irq 4 i/o 3f8<br>
com 2 = irq 3 i/o 2f8<br>
com 3 = irq 4 i/o 3e8<br>
com 4 = irq 3 i/o 2e8<br>
<br>
Windows 95 & NT will work with these settings...

 

[bhamster]

this setup appears to be rather complicated. Windows can support more 4 com ports, on a standard system com 1 and 3 and com 2 and 4 share irq's. Remove the addon board and reset the standard ports to the standard settings. Once you have done that add the addon card on other irq's and set them as com 5 and six. then use coms 1 2 5 and 6. unless your software does not support that or the addon card does not then you should have no issue.

 

[Guest_imported]

Although it's sometimes possible to share IRQs, I've found it can lead to problems. Many of the add-on I/O cards which claim to be able to support different address and IRQ settings regrettably don't always live up to their promises. I'd advise temporarily disabling the on-board ports, and then running some diags with loopback tests, etc., on the add-on I/O card ports to clearly establish that they'll work on your desired settings. Then set up your on-board ports and also run those same tests. You will then stand a fighting chance of getting them going in Windows 95. I currently have 4 ports successfully running on a W98 SE machine:-

COM1 3f8 IRQ4 - On-board port
COM2 2f8 IRQ3 - On-board port
COM3 3e8 IRQ5 - Kouwell Dual port add-on card
COM4 2e8 IRQ7 - .. .. .. .. .. ..

Machine also has NIC and soundblaster cards all working ok.

The other point worth remembering is that some comms software will not use addresses and IRQs other than the basic 3f8, 2f8, IRQ 4 and 3, and some don't like IRQs above 8. So worth checking with the application specs...

Good luck!


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