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WestonGroup

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Port problems

here's the problem

We are a medical company that has purchased this paging system for our residents

we already have the same system in place on 1 computer and it works perfectly

we have purchased 2 new units for other buildings.

The system has these pendants that the residents push if they fall or are hurt, (the pendants registers to a receiving box that alerts on a program on a computer)  once it alerts that alert is sent to another separate paging box which sends pages to nurses.

How its setup on the machine is the receiver plugs into a serial port and the paging box plugs into a serial port  (well since there is only 1 serial port on a computer I have to use a usb-serial adapter for the paging box)

I install the software (arial) on the computer, I install the drivers for the usb-serial adapter.  I connect the receiving box to the serial port,  I connect the paging box to the usb-serial adapter.

For this system the receiveing box has to be on com 1 and the paging on com 2 so I config the ports accordingly

I run the program and i get a receiver connection error   (meaning the program is saying the receiving box is not connected to the port)   I have tested this on multiple machines and I have used multiple receiving boxes

I have matched the exact settings from the machine that works to the new machine yet it won't work

I don't know if experts can help on this since its an outside product.  I have called their tech support and they can't figure it out either
Avatar of RonHoffmann
RonHoffmann

Have you checked the device manager ( assuming computer is a windows box) to see it there are any IRQ confilcts between your serial port and the USB device?
I've hade trouble with usb to serial adapters as well, they sometimes don't translate the information properly.
If the computer has a modem installed in it, it probably was assigned com1.
If you don't need the modem, take it out and com1 should revert back to the serial port.

some things to try.
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ASKER

its windows xp

no conflicts

the problem isn't with the usb to serial adapter that works

its the serial port thats not working, I don't know if its a computer issue, settings issue, hardware issue with the receiver.

All's I know is the setting match idential to the working machine.

I can remove the modem its not needed
Another suggestion ...

it might be a cable problem, have you tried different serial cables ?
yes

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
Avatar of Viraj_Kanwade
Viraj_Kanwade
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The usb to serial port connector is not the issue

there are 2 devices

the device that plugs directly into the serial port is not working


the device that plugs into the usb-serial port connector works fine
Sometimes the com port is disabled in the BIOS.

Reboot PC, hit the magic key to enter setup, and check the peripherals to see if the built-in com port is enabled.