Com Ports

Ozziej

Ok well I want to upload firmware onto a piece of hardware I have that needs to be connected to a computer by a serial port. I have a laptop with no 9 pin male serial port so I bought a null modem cable and serial usb convertor from Ebay. It said plug and play with vista but vista didn't recognise it and its so generic that it has no markings on it to try and google a driver.
Lesson learned I probably need to buy one with a vista driver in compuworld.

Second issue is the forums on the web which describe how to upgrade firmware talk of changing com port to suit the convertor. Now I've looked in device manager and there is no com ports listed even when I put show hidden items. Does that mean my laptop has no com ports? If you can I buy an inexpensive external card. Any help gratefully received as I seem to have a habit of buying incorrect cable connections on ebay due to my lack of knowledge of what I even have!

MarkR

In your device manager once your usb serial converter is installed, you should see a section called ports lpt1 (or something like this). If it's not there the driver isn't installed correctly. Fortunately every usb serial converter I've used seems to use the same driver. Google belkin usb serial driver. Actually, just go here

Changing your port number is easy after that. Just go to properties, port settings, advanced, and select a port number from the drop down menu.