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COM ports 1 & 2 have exclamation marks over them in Device Manager.

I have a PC running WIN2K and everything is working good except in System Properties/Device Manager in the list of Devices By Type, the COM port 1& 2 have a yellow exclamation mark over both and have the following messages:

COM port 1- Clicking on the COM port 1 entry in the list the General tab sez "This device is no longer functioning properly and may need to be replaced. Contact the manufacturer of this device for assistance." The port setup tab items are OK. Driver tab-Microsoft driver installed and working OK. Resources tab-I/O range 03F8-03FF, IRQ 4, no conflicts. The modem uses COM port 3 and was able to connect to the phone line and dial a number.

COM port 2- All items are the same/good as indicated above for com port 1. Resources tab shows I/O range of 02F8-02FF, IRQ 3 and no conflicts.

Why am I getting the exclamation marks and the "may not be functioning properly" message if all items appear to be OK including the fact that the modem uses com port 3 with no problem? What do I need to do to find and correct this problem?

Thanks.

SOLUTION

younghv

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Chris B

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SOLUTION

younghv

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richieraider07

ASKER

This PC works 100% including the COMM 1 & 2 ports even though there is an exclamation mark over each COMM port listing in Device Manager. The modem uses COMM port 3 and successfully called a Microsoft support number. And the mouse uses the other port and works fine. I reinstalled the COMM port drivers and reinstalled the motherboard utilities/drivers. There was no change. This PC was designed for WIN98 and was used in that configuration. When I was given this tower I upgraded it to WIN 2000. Perhaps in this overall process something has changed. When the motherboard utilities were reinstalled a message appeared indicating that WIN 2000 drivers were supporting these COMM ports and that the motherboard drivers would not be needed. There is something missing here; are there any other ideas I can apply to this problem?

Thanks for any and all replies.

Chris B

The disk may be designed for 98. There may be an updated chipset driver on the manufacturers site. Post back with the make and model of the board. (Will be printed on the board)

Chris B

richieraider07

ASKER

For burrcm: The make and model of the MB is ASUS and P2B-F. Thanks for your response.

richieraider07

Chris B

The ASUS TW download site is down for maintenance. Will be in touch...

Chris B

richieraider07

ASKER

burcm: Thank you and all the others that made several good suggestions that led me to discover the following solution. My problem was on a PC upgraded from WIN98 to WIN2000. The system was working good including the COMM 1 & 2 ports except that these two port listings in Device Manager were displaying an exclamation mark over each.

SOLUTION: In the Award BIOS Chipset Features Setup, Onboard Serial Port 1 and 2 should be set to "Disable" instead of the appropriate address and IRQ. According to the motherboard manual the "disable" setting disconnects the external two connectors but the internal connections for the modem, mouse etc. are still there. This is my interpretation of the user manual for the motherboard and with this setting change, everything works and the com port 1 & 2 listing and the exclamation marks in Device Manager are gone.

richieraider07

younghv

RR07 - thank you for the points-split, but I learned more on this one than I taught.

Thanks to Chris B for the scoop.

Vic

richieraider07

ASKER

SOLUTION: In the Award BIOS Chipset Features Setup, Onboard Serial Port 1 and 2 should be set to "Disable" instead of the appropriate address and IRQ. According to the motherboard manual the "disable" setting disconnects the external two connectors but the internal connections for the modem, mouse etc. are still there. This is my interpretation of the user manual for the motherboard and with this setting change, everything works and the com port 1 & 2 listing and the exclamation marks in Device Manager are gone.

richieraider07

Chris B

Glad to here it is working for you, however I am pretty confident that the external ports should not now work at all (the options in bios are the 4 addresses or "Disabled for the Onboard Serial Connector") - or are you saying that you are using a mouse in one of the com ports rather than a PS2 port? If this is the case it sounds a bit confused. It would still be nice to see it all going correctly. COM 3 is a virtual port connected to the PCI bus so won't be affected by disabling the physical ports. Your driver disk does appear to cover W2K, but I wouldn't be surprised to find that there is a BIOS and or driver update on the ASUS site which would sort this out properly. The site is still down, but will be back after Easter I guess. I will be in touch if I find anything useful.

Chris B

COM ports 1 &amp; 2 have exclamation marks over them in Device Manager.

COM ports 1 & 2 have exclamation marks over them in Device Manager.