Registered: Feb 2000
Location:
Posts: 3

I am running windows NT on an IBM 390E thinkpad with an internal modem and one serial port. After realizing that my modem is on com1 I called IBM tech support and they helped my switch my modem to Com2 in order to free up the serial port on the back of the laptop. That did not work so I called Handspring Tech support. They stated that no matter which com port you put the modem on it will always "use" the serial port at the rear of the computer and that my only hope is to install an additional serial port.

Any thoughts??? Please help!!!!

Registered: Feb 2000
Location:
Posts: 62

I think that they are full of it.

I had the same problem synching with my two NT computers, one at the office and one at home. The one at home has a modem, the one at the office a network card. They now both work fine.

Here's what I did. I had to specifically set the port properties on each machine.

Go to Control Panel, Ports. I set Port 1 I/O address to 3f8, and the IRQ to 4. Baud settings to 9600.

It works now with no difficulties.

Try it. Good luck.

larry

Registered: Oct 1999
Location:
Posts: 84

I don't think that the previous reply would help because he is using a laptop. Here is what you have to do..Go to the programs and find a program called IBM ThinkPad(???) then you should have an IBM ThinkPad configurations prgram. When you open it it should show you a picture of you computer with a list of all of the devices; what you want to do is find the infrared port and disable it, then find the serial port and enable it. After that reboot your computer and try a hotsync. Post the results on this page if you still need help.


SIH

Registered: Feb 2000
Location:
Posts: 4

quote:

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Originally posted by Larry Chester:

Go to Control Panel, Ports. I set Port 1 I/O address to 3f8, and the IRQ to 4. Baud settings to 9600.

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Larry- You Rock! I've been trying to get my visor to hot sync with my NT laptop for weeks. I've spent over 3 hours on the un-support line with no results! And YOU did it! Your suggestion of changing the IRQ to 4 did the trick. I can't thank you enough.

Registered: May 2000
Location: Eagan, MN
Posts: 1

Great info abounds!
Larry and Sih both have valid points.

Larry's solution for the Thinkpad 390E makes perfect sense. it would definitely work in his situation (the 390E is the older model, correct?)

I have a Thinkpad 600 that was having the same problem with not being able to synchronize through the COM1 Serial port. I used Sih's advice it worked perfectly. I'll break it down into more detail for the benefit of non-techies:

1. Go to Start -> Programs -> Thinkpad -> Thinkpad configuration.

2. Roll over the pictures on the left side. One will say "Serial port." Click on it, and enable COM1.

3. Roll over the pictures on the right side. One will say "Infrared." Click on it, and disable the infrared.

4. Shut down and restart your machine. Everything should be fine.

Thanks for your help guys! Just like Clare said, you saved me a lot of wasted effort.

Registered: Jan 2000
Location:
Posts: 7

OK, I have an IBM 390E Thinkpad, (NT 4.0 SP 5) and had been having no problem syncing via serial cradle for months. Then a couple of months ago I had problems that were resolved by replacing my cradle. Everything was back to normal and fine until this week. After not syncing for a few days, I went to sync, and nothing happened. Same symptoms as my prior cradle failure. I went thru the "Hyperterminal cradle test" and suspected the cradle again. My replacement arrived today, but the problem has not been solved (much to my dismay). In addition, now my HotSync manager (on the Thinkpad) is popping-up on startup with a "Could not open COM1" message.

I've gone thru all of the steps you guys have laid out here, disabling/enabling the serial port, deleting/adding com1, I even tried re-installing the HotSync software, and the same error message popped-up when I was doing that.

I even tried switching over to COM3, although I don't know if the serial port can even be accessed via COM3.

My modem has been sitting on COM2 the whole while, and is working fine (right now in fact).

What's up? Is my serial port broken all of a sudden? Is there a way I can test it? Any advice?

[Edited by dminnick on 09-05-2000 at 08:29 AM]

Registered: Feb 2000
Location:
Posts: 638

This may sound dumb, but did you try soft reseting the Visor. I have to do that twice a month when my HOTsync doesn't work. Solved the problem evertime.
BEN

Registered: Jan 2000
Location:
Posts: 7

I tried hard and soft resets on the Visor. The problem seems to lie on the laptop -- HotSync Manager says COM1 is not available.

Registered: Feb 2000
Location:
Posts: 638

I had that problem on a computer once when I was putting an IR port on. What I did was disable all com ports in the bios. Rebooted several times. Re-enable the com port in the bios and re-setup all devices on the com ports.
What happened to me was a device that didn't use the com ports was hogging to IRQ. For some reason this was not displayed in the control panel, as it said "device working properly". When windowz tried to re-installe it to the com port again it couldn't, and used a different one.
I know that you may be thinking that it would be easy to change the IRQ in the control panel, but that did not work for me. I think that it was a device that shared some of the resources of the com port, thus making it think that it should always have the same IRQ as the com. When the com ports was not there it developed it's own IRQ (Windows should say, "new hardware found" when you reboot your computer with-out the com enabled), and kept that IRQ while the com port developed another IRQ.
Hope that works for you.
BEN