Unused COM Ports

pjphilli (Peter) · #1 10-07-2011, 01:38 PM

Hi

I have just installed a PC for use with my astro gear. It has only one
RS232 socket but I need two so I installed a USB/Rs232 converter and
confirmed its operation and COM number in XP Device Manager. It installed as COM13 but one of my RS232 attachments will not recognize this high number. When I tried to change the port number to a lower number this could not be done as ports 2 to 12 were claimed to be "in use" but no equipment is connected to them.
My question is - how do I permanently delete these unused COM ports so
that I may assign my converter to a lower number than 13?

Cheers Peter

GTB_an_Owl (Geoff) · #2 10-07-2011, 01:57 PM

in device manager i believe you can "view hidden devices"

your extra ports should turn up there and you can delete them if your game

geoff

mill (Martin) · #3 10-07-2011, 03:32 PM

Those ports are not in use and you can just assign one of the unused ports to your usb2serial device.
I do this all the time, i think that it might have allocated these port numbers to some devices and keeps them allocated even tho they are not connected anymore.

mswhin63 (Malcolm) · #4 10-07-2011, 05:43 PM

If you PC has Bluetooth then they can reserve some Comm ports for it use.

wasyoungonce (Brendan) · #5 10-07-2011, 07:42 PM

You can turn off ports or assign port numbers in BIOS.

marki · #6 11-07-2011, 11:35 AM

Use device manager and open com ports. Find your device, click on it and open the dialogue box. I think it is under the advanced tab (not used xp in a long while) to find the com port setting and just change it to suit your needs. If it is in use by another device it does not matter as when you change it windows will move the other device to a higher port number. Done it lots of times and had no problems at all.

Mark

pjphilli (Peter) · #7 11-07-2011, 04:27 PM

Thanks All for these suggestions - I will look into them.
Cheers Peter