I have a Windws XP system, every time it reboots, in order to use the COM1 port, I have to go into the Control Panel, device manager, and delete the port, then scan for new hardware to have it work.

At the BIOS level com1 is set up to the defaults - 03F8 using IRQ4,

However in Device Manager after deleting and re-acquiring it, it shows up on IRQ7.

Manually configuring the device in Device Manager does not work, wether I use irq 4 or 7, I still have delete and re-scan for the port to work.

This computer is:

CHIPTECH
XP-PRO SYSTEM
AMD SEMPRON PROCESSOR
1.6 GHZ
448 MB RAM
PHYSICAL ADDRESS EXTENTIONS

CMOS:

COM1: 03F8/4
LPT1: IRQ7

this is being used as a shipping station with a METLER/TOLEDO scale attached to COM1.

Any suggestions appreciated,

Frank

Heya Frank Welcome to PCHF

Is there a second serial port you can try switching to? What are you using in that port? Do you have any other devices you can test with?

The IRQ moving is nothing to worry about, unless you have an IRQ conflict somewhere.

Hi FrankG welcome to PCHF Try booting the PC insafe mode by tapping F8 at startup once started in safe mode go to the device manger remove all listed under com ports and also remove all listed printer ports reboot the PC in normal mode see if it works another thing to try would be a bios update. Are the com ports on the mainboard ir a seperate card some cards have jumper setting for plug and play and also manual assign?

To WADD,
Mother board only has one physical com port and one paralel port.
Machine used to have a SIIG card for ports 3, 4 and LPT2. Card was removed, along with the driver.
I could not get a SIIG driver that was "WINDOWS" approved, and suspected a memory leak by the way the machines behave - shipping slows down the more it gets used, and a reboot helps to speed it up again.
This was done on 3 of the 4 computers being used with out an issue. This 4th machine was a bear to set up to begin with. It came in looking like an internal modem was set up, there isn't one.

I will be trying the other suggestion of the a safe reboot, deleting the devices and then rebooting some time today.

Frank