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I use CorelDraw X4, CoCut and a Roland PNC-1100 that is connected by a serial port to my CPU. The other day, I started to have problems with my plotter not getting info. I called Roland first, then CoCut, then Roland again. I finally isolated the proplem...my port info was missing. I went to Device Manager to check the port situation and under Network adapters, where Ports (COM&LPT) usually resides, was nothing. It was completely missing from my computer. The Roland Tech suggested that I run the Windows update to insure that my computer had all the available and necessary updates to function at 100%. Unfortunately when attempting that, the CPU experiences technical problems and won't open Microsoft's update page. I'm on my own here, because although any problems having to do with Windows update are suppose to be free of charge, Microsoft insists that since the CPU was bought from Dell, It's not there problem and it will cost me for their "sage" advice. Of course, Dell has not returned calls or e-mails. Is this something I can fix myself, or must I rely on Microsoft's pickpockets?
-------------------- Terry Baird Baird Signs 3484 West Lake Rd. Canandaigua, NY 14424 Posts: 790 | From: Canandaigua, New York | Registered: Dec 2002
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I'd go buy a $12 USB to Serial port adapter and try that before I'd waste too much time on the phone with Dell or pay Microsoft to walk you through a bunch of troubleshooting flow charts read to you by a monkey.....
[ June 30, 2009, 12:11 PM: Message edited by: Jon Jantz ]
-------------------- Jon Jantz Snappysign.com jjantz21@gmail.com http://www.allcw.com Posts: 3395 | From: Atmore, AL | Registered: Nov 2005
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-------------------- John Byrd Ball Ground, Georgia 770-735-6874 http://johnbyrddesign.com so happy I gotta sit on both my hands to keep from wavin' at everybody! Posts: 741 | From: Ball Ground, Georgia, USA | Registered: May 1999
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-------------------- You ever notice how easily accessible people are when they are requiring your services but once they get invoice you can't reach them anymore
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first of all if you are looking for your ports under the network adapters heading in device manager they won't be there,..they have their own heading the same as network adapters called Ports(COM&LPT), second of all if you have a serial port on the back of your box and doesn't appear in the device manager check in your system bios to make sure it is enabled and or disabled,..once enabled, then boot your machine to windows if windows doesn't find the port on boot, manually install a standard serial port in windows and it will appear in device manager,..if that don't work go buy a usb serial adapter as others have suggested,...keep in mind windows may possibly assign a com port number like com 5 or com3 randomly when it installs the usb adapter so you'll have to check device manager with an adapter to see what port to set your software to cut to,....hope this helps ya,....
[ June 30, 2009, 06:52 PM: Message edited by: Tim Barrow ]
-------------------- fly low...timi/NC is, Tim Barrow Barrow Art Signs Winston-Salem,NC Posts: 2224 | From: Winston-Salem,NC,USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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Tim makes a good point. Before I upgraded my Signlab, it wouldn't recognize a port numbered higher than com3.
edited to add that the last computer I had that started losing track of things was due to the battery on the motherboard going dead, the CMOS gets Alzheimer's when the battery starts to drain.
[ June 30, 2009, 08:15 PM: Message edited by: John Byrd ]
-------------------- John Byrd Ball Ground, Georgia 770-735-6874 http://johnbyrddesign.com so happy I gotta sit on both my hands to keep from wavin' at everybody! Posts: 741 | From: Ball Ground, Georgia, USA | Registered: May 1999
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I think Jon, John, Bruce & Tim have good advice. I'm going to forward this to a young sign friend of mine who is going through a very similar issue. Just my two cents, I google any computer questions I have - it's free. Just type your question in the Google bar, and you'll have many sights pop up that you can choose from, with people having same/similar problems, and tech people answering the questions with thorough instructions. I wouldn't pay Microsoft for help that they should give for free - BECAUSE I've found some Microsoft updates have actually bugged up our computers (and they don't send out notices for many months after), and you have to find the update your hard drive and delete it - it took me a week to figure out how, (through Googling & Egghead), but it worked, and I did it myself!
-------------------- Kathy Weeks Weeks-End Signs & Graphics Lake Elmo, Minnesota Posts: 249 | From: Lake Elmo, Minnesota | Registered: Mar 2009
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Thanks Y'all! Tim, what I meant by "under" network adapters was literal. Ports, alphabetically is listed (or in my case, not listed) directly under network adapters.
-------------------- Terry Baird Baird Signs 3484 West Lake Rd. Canandaigua, NY 14424 Posts: 790 | From: Canandaigua, New York | Registered: Dec 2002
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