xp com ports

[Bob Whitehouse]

As someone fairly new to such matters I need help please.
I have a GPS program which gives you the options of choosing com ports 1
through to com 9 but no higher. The actual GPS device has installed itself
in Com 26. I have checked and found that the other earlier ports 2 to 24 are
said to be 'in use' I cannot see what they are used for but I have installed
some usb to com drivers over the last few months for mobile phones and have
noticed that they use successive com ports. I tried to manually alter the
com port in Device manager but it rejected it.
Any ideas would be welcome
Thanks
Bob

 

[Alan Smith]

As someone fairly new to such matters I need help please.
I have a GPS program which gives you the options of choosing com ports 1
through to com 9 but no higher. The actual GPS device has installed
itself in Com 26.

Did you get the gps unit and the program from the same supplier? Have you
tried the support sites for any info about your unnamed device and unnamed
software?

 

[Bob Whitehouse]

Thanks for quick response Alan

Yes Via Australia!
Their FAQ's on their web site has following


Question: After I have connected the receiver in Windows, why doesn’t it
connect to VisualGPS? It tells me that the port doesn’t open.

Please check your port settings. When you connected the receiver with
Windows, Windows automatically assigns a port number for you. Find out what
it is, and change the port settings on VisualGPS.


I have emailed their support which is via webmaster but no response as yet.
it is Aktronix GPS Bluetooth which has the program VisualGPS The Bluetooth
GPS works fine with my PDA so I guess it is merely the com port settings.
Bob.

 

[Si Ballenger]

As someone fairly new to such matters I need help please.
I have a GPS program which gives you the options of choosing com ports 1
through to com 9 but no higher. The actual GPS device has installed itself
in Com 26. I have checked and found that the other earlier ports 2 to 24 are
said to be 'in use' I cannot see what they are used for but I have installed
some usb to com drivers over the last few months for mobile phones and have
noticed that they use successive com ports. I tried to manually alter the
com port in Device manager but it rejected it.
Any ideas would be welcome
Thanks
Bob

XP has a bug associated with assigning com port addresses to USB
devices (is your GPS attached via USB?). Every time the device is
connected, it is assigned a higher com port number. In the
advanced section of the com port setup in device manager when the
GPS is connected, you can just reassign the port number for the
GPS to a lower port number that you know is not in use, and
ignore the windows warning. I've done this with my USB/serial
port adapter and XP seems to remember the assigned com port after
that. Check the link below for some info.

http://www.modemsite.com/56k/xptip.asp