Serial port breakout bracket not working after motherboard change \ VOGONS

Serial port breakout bracket not working after motherboard change

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First post, by appiah4

Posted on 2019-02-04, 22:15

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Replaced my P133's old motherboard (Taken PCI597-1) with a new one (QDI Explorer I PI5V430) and my serial port breakout bracket and/or serial mouse no longer works. Everything else on the motherboard works perfectly aside from the serial port.

The manual shows no pinout for the UART headers, and as far as I am aware there is only one header pinout for this after all? Could it be that this motherboard is meant to use a proprietary bracket for the serial ports?

What to do? Order another bracket and hope that one works? Just disable onboard COM and LPT ports and add in an ISA Multi-IO card?

Reply 1 of 8, by GigAHerZ

Posted on 2019-02-04, 22:15

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[FIXED] Serial ports both dead? (Acorp 5VIA3P / EFA P5V580)

Read this. There are 2 types of wiring for COM ports.
Hope it helps. 😀

"640K ought to be enough for anybody." - And i intend to get every last bit out of it even after loading every damn driver!
A little about software engineering: https://byteaether.github.io/

Reply 2 of 8, by appiah4

Posted on 2019-02-04, 22:33

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Ahh I see..

I just checked my own bracket with a multimeter for continuity, and it is obviously meant for motherboards with sequential pinouts.

I also looked at my board more closely, and the UART headers are actually marked clearly as being staggered:

So indeed I am probably trying to use a bracket that was meant to be connected to a sequential header on a staggered header.. interesting.. Apparently the staggered setup is more recent and the current standard, so I'll just try my luck with ordering one of these brand new brackets:

10-pin-header-com-2-port-16in-db9-seri-port-ayrac-28cm__1354919517886995.jpg

Reply 3 of 8, by dkarguth

Posted on 2019-02-05, 15:24

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I had the same problem a week or so ago! 🤣

I made a couple of very janky adapters to go in between the headers and the serial ports. It's things like this where I really take my signature quote to heart.

"And remember, this fix is only temporary, unless it works." -Red Green

Reply 4 of 8, by gdjacobs

Posted on 2019-02-05, 16:26

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Reply 5 of 8, by appiah4

Posted on 2019-02-05, 20:21

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dkarguth wrote:
I had the same problem a week or so ago! lol […]
Show full quote
I had the same problem a week or so ago! 🤣

I made a couple of very janky adapters to go in between the headers and the serial ports. It's things like this where I really take my signature quote to heart.

I am considering making the same thing with Female to Male dupont cables and super glue if this replacement bracket is also sequential 😀

Reply 6 of 8, by GigAHerZ

Posted on 2019-02-05, 20:26

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Why not to solder the bracket side wires in the other way around?

"640K ought to be enough for anybody." - And i intend to get every last bit out of it even after loading every damn driver!
A little about software engineering: https://byteaether.github.io/

Reply 7 of 8, by appiah4

Posted on 2019-02-06, 20:48

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GigAHerZ wrote:
Why not to solder the bracket side wires in the other way around?

Because the new bracket only cost me 3 bucks shipped and zero minutes of soldering work 😀

The new bracket was indeed staggered and worked flawlessly! Now I just need to install a HDD to this PC and install Win95C on it alongside the DOS 6.22 install on the CF.

Reply 8 of 8, by dkarguth

Posted on 2019-02-07, 07:19

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appiah4 wrote:
Now I just need to install a HDD to this PC and install Win95C on it alongside the DOS 6.22 install on the CF.

That was a delightful amount of abbreviations in one sentence. It made me think of the scene in Good Morning Vietnam where Robin Williams makes fun of his CO for using an acronym.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXlvy3sTTBk

"And remember, this fix is only temporary, unless it works." -Red Green

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