COM Port Blues

M

Michael J.

greeting all,

Ok, I first off admit I don't know much about this stuff, so please excuse me if I
might ask a dumb question here.

I'm trying to install a program (Softimage XSI for those who might be curious) on my
PC (Sony Vaio) which is running XP Home.

The program comes in two parts. The problem is....the main graphics program utilizes
a server (the secondary part of the program) which must make use of either COM 1 or
COM 2. The main program "communicates" with the secondary (server) program by use of
the COM port, even though both programs are installed on the same machine, (they do
this incase you might want to do network rendering...in which case you would have the
server program installed on some main super-computer somewhere)

Here's the problem: I do not seem to have any COM ports on my computer. In Device
Manager, under 'Ports', it only indicates that I have a printer port, (Printer Port
(LPT1)).

The Only place that I get any indication of a COM port is for a dial-up modem (which
I never use) which is on COM 3.

If this has anything to do with it, the are 3 PCI slots in my computer. One is being
used by a Radeon Video card. Another for a M-Audio sound card. And the last for that
dial-up modem. I can remove the modem. I never use the damn thing.

Is there any connection between PCI slots and COM ports? Can a PCI slot be used as a
COM port? How exactly could I go about finding out which COM ports my computer has
and is using. Nothing shows up in Device Manager as far as COM ports go. Can I set up
a "virtual" COM port if need be?

Once again, the program I'm installing must make use of either COM 1 or COM 2.

Any help much appreciated.

MJ
 
G

Guest

PCI slots have nothing to do with com ports, if a device is inserted into a
pci slot and requires a com port, the sys bios and operating system configure
it( if on automatic in the bios), com ports are used for modems, mouse and
key board, almost all pci slots are pci 2.2(33mhz),server boards have
"larger" pci slots to accomodate 66MHZ - 533 MHZ pci cards, for High speed
Raid mostly
 
B

Bob I

Go into the BIOS of the PC and enable a COM or Serial Port.(instructions
to do this should be part of the motherboard or PC manual)
 

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