Is it turned on in the Bios?
What does device manager tell You?

chrisNova777 wrote:

i tried opening hyperterminal but i dont know wtf im doing

In that case, how exactly do you know your serial port isn't working?

i have a com port serial dongle..
it "just works" on another motherboard
this motherboard.. it doesnt matter what os i try.. it always says it cant find the dongle
i dont get it

everything else with the board is fine.. but i cant run the software i want to run because it doesnt see the damn dongle on the comport

So, all you know is that the dongle isn't working. It does not follow that the serial port isn't working.

When you use the other motherboard, are you running the software under the same operating system? (What OS are you using, anyway?)

the dongle works fine on any of my other computers..
but not on this one. because the serial port doesnt work

if i was to get an add on pci card to provide a comm port.. does it need drivers to be supported by os?
or would it be "natively supported"... reason being, i want it to work with windows 3.x + windows 95
and im afraid ill just have to get a different motherboard rather then finding a serial port addon card that will actually work in windows 3.x

has anyone elese experienced this with any mobos? teh serial ports are just dead? is it possible that it is a component failure? uart chip? and this is irreversibly just dead.. or is there anything i can do baout it?

ive tried win98 + xp both of them have the same result
the com ports get setup + do not work.
i guess i have to try the com2 port by getting a header first to know if they are both dead or if its just comm1 thats dead

chrisNova777 wrote:

but not on this one. because the serial port doesnt work

I don't see that as a reasonable statement. You still haven't said anything about what software you're trying to run or what OS you are using. If this computer is much faster than the other one you were using, then maybe the software is speed-sensitive when it comes to checking the dongle.

Try using a serial mouse or a serial modem. Or if you don't have either of those, you might be able to do a loopback test with a paper clip, though I tend not to have much luck with those. See for instance https://www.reliableracing.com/downloads/LoopBackTest.pdf .

If your COM port really was broken, then Hyperterminal or Device Manager would probably have some sort of error message. (The serial port does show up in Device Manager, right?) If Hyperterminal just sits there and does nothing when you start it, then that is entirely reasonable behavior even for a functioning serial port.

if i was to get an add on pci card to provide a comm port.. does it need drivers to be supported by os?
or would it be "natively supported"... reason being, i want it to work with windows 3.x + windows 95
and im afraid ill just have to get a different motherboard rather then finding a serial port addon card that will actually work in windows 3.x

In my experience they work pretty smoothly without requiring special drivers.

There are also programs that will let one computer access the serial port of another computer over a network – though it's not clear if that will be suitable for your application which you have told us nothing about.

the applications im trying to use are very old versions of Steinberg Cubase + Emagic Logic
the cubase dongle works fine because it runs on the parallel port. the logic dongle also works fine, on any computer BUT this one, but the reason i wanted to use this one for running it is because the motherboards built in video has a driver for windows 3.1 (the 815E chipset that supports the tualatin 1.4ghz processor ---> https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/460 … or-Windows-3-11)

ive tried everything i can think of to get the damn serial port to work.. cahnging bios settings.. it just doesnt want to work..i talked to a friend of mine who said that com ports CAN get blown.. by plugging devices in and out when the machine is on.. thats the only thing i can think of because the com port just doesnt want to work.. my only resort is to get a header and use the com2 port off the motherboard which has probably never been used ever. I got this motherboard given to me it used to belong to a friend of my mothers who was not very computer saavy to say the least so its a foregone conclusion that the com2 port is safe+ sound in its virgin state.. if i just had a header to plug into it.. i ordered a few off ebay..

i was hoping that someone may read + post a miracle fix that was my intention with this post

Ix this the only serial device you have for testing? Maybe try another one, just to be sure? Like a null modem cable.

i had tried a serial mouse aswell. tried hyperterminal loopback.. nothing works.. it just doesnt respond or act properly.. i cant figure it out.. i wish i could just get it to work but nothing makes sense

thats why i was trying to find some type of diagnostic software to figure out what exactly is going on'
the only explanation is that the comport got blown somehow. visually it does not appear to be damaged

i have a feeling i will get the same result using the com2 header.. unless it has a totally different chip/subsystem on the motherboard

like i said befoer tho the logic dongle just works fine on any other computer.. so i know it works

If nothing else works.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2-Dual-9-Pin-Serial … =item2ed6e650d7

Maybe the ports got fried or something like that. A shame, because the board is really good.

Skyscraper wrote:

If nothing else works.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2-Dual-9-Pin-Serial … =item2ed6e650d7

thanks for the link - i appreciate it
but - windows 3.11 will see it?
these things are usually XP compatible only

Get an ISA board like that (or a Multi IO and disable everything but COM1) and disable the onboard ports in the BIOS. Windows won't know the difference.

would com1 + com2 go thru the same chip ?
if com1 is blown would com2 be aswell or is there a chance my com2 will work.
that would be really amazng if it just works...

alexanrs wrote:

Get an ISA board like that (or a Multi IO and disable everything but COM1) and disable the onboard ports in the BIOS. Windows won't know the difference.

its a pci only motherboard! would it be teh same for pci?

Maybe... By the way, does COM2 work? If it does, then maybe you can disable COM1 in the BIOS and set the second port to use COM1 IO address and IRQ and use it instead.

alexanrs wrote:

Maybe... By the way, does COM2 work? If it does, then maybe you can disable COM1 in the BIOS and set the second port to use COM1 IO address and IRQ and use it instead.

im not sure.. i will find out once i get the attachment to connect to the header.. even if it takes up a pci slot i dont care as long as it works!
but i was hoping someone would have some advice or experience where they had fixed a similar issue.... how could it be that im the only one in the world whos had such a problem!

i will have to explore the addon serial pci card route if com2 doesnt work out..
or maybe i should just find a different 815E chipset motherboard