How to find an uninstalled com port?

[Alilynn]

Hi all,

I uninstalled my serial port for a vinyl cutter thinking I could re-install without a problem. The cutting program worked fine until computer froze and had to shut down. When I rebooted, the program could not find the port?

Cannot find the COM & LPT port in device manager, cannot enter BIOS at start up and it is not listed in the add/remove program. I am on a Toshiba laptop from 2011 and running windows 10.

Searched the internet for a free download but I cannot find anything, they all seemed to be just driver finders etc. I did run my driver program with the vinyl cutter plugged in but it did not find anything.

I have a client that wants their stickers this weekend. Can someone steer me to the right website or maybe have some ideas on what I need to do?

Thanks.
Ali

 

[muckshifter]

go to ... Control Panel / Device Manager / Ports ... look for any yellow 'exclamation' marks which denote anything not setup correctly.

Serial ports are a 'Plug-n-Play' device, meaning they don't need Windows drivers per say. Your hardware will probably need drivers to access the port.

Pressing F2 immediately after powering up should get the BIOS up, you usually need to be quick and keep 'tapping' F2 to get into the BIOS ... check there to see that all ports are enabled.


welcome to PCReview

 

[Alilynn]

Thank you muckshifter,

I reset the computer to an earlier time and now have the ports back in the device manager.

The issue now is the multiport communications port (com4) has the yellow exclamation marker. I have tried to update and says it's good.

This is what is says: Of course I haven't a clue as to what it means?

This device cannot find enough free resources that it can use. (Code 12)

If you want to use this device, you will need to disable one of the other devices on this system.

You need to restart your computer before the changes you made to this device will take effect.

 

[muckshifter]

'Code 12' is basically a conflict between 2 devices wanting to use the same port.

Need more info ... What OS you using, what devices are connected to the system, what model Toshiba so I can better help.

I would make a new restore point, delete the port from device manager then, without restarting, ask device manager to look for new hardware.

(If, everything is working, you could just ignore it)

 

[Alilynn]

Don't know how, but it is now working.

Thank you muckshifter.

 

[muckshifter]

Don't know how, but it is now working.

good good ...