PCI-232/8 Installation Problems

[crix0r]

Hello All -

I've recently moved a PCI-232/8 from an old win98 box to a newer, Dell precision 370 running Windows XP Professional.  I downloaded and installed the drivers, revision 1.6 and everything seemed to install just fine.  However, when I run the troubleshooting wizard, the com port section fails.  I've moved the card, and the same thing happens:  All of the com ports fail with their assigned I/O and memory range.  The com ports seem to be getting this info from the actual card itself (the card has the same I/O and memory address as all 8 of the com ports, thus causing a conflict).  So here's what I've done thus far:

1) Tried to set PNP OS in the BIOS.  Oddly enough, this one of the first machines I've ever seen that _does not_ have that option.

2) Moved the card to different positions on the mother board.  All this does is change their base address for I/O and memory.

3) Manually change each com ports settings.  This area is actually grey'd out.  So I can't change anything there.

Any suggestions ?

Thanks,
Jason Mullins

[Angela M]

Hello Jason,

This is indeed some strange behavior.  I have a few questions about what is happening with your system.

1) If you put the card back in the Win 98 machine, does it still work?
2) Is there a reason you installed 1.6 of NI-Serial rather than a newer version of the driver?

I think you may be on the right track with checking the BIOS, it might be a good idea to check with the Manufacturer and see if there is a BIOS update for your computer.  You could also try moving to a newer revision of NI-Serial.

If none of these options are possible, can you post a screenshot of how the ports and memory assignments are appearing in Device Manager?

Regards,
Angela
Applications Engineer

[crix0r]

Hi Little A -

Yep, if I put it back in the machine, it does it fact still work.  There is no reason why I installed 1.6 other than tht's what tech support told me to download and install.  I've since installed 1.8.  Which has brought a new, albeit promising, set of issues.  There is no option on this BIOS to set "Plug and Play OS", unfortunately.  Nor is there an option for "Install mode".  This machine is running the latest BIOS (A8) as well.  However, with the new 1.8 drivers installed (are these the latest ones?) I know get the exclamation point over top of all the serial ports, but not the host adaptor.

Screen shot should be attached 🙂

Thanks again for your help,
Jason Mullins

[Angela M]

Hello Jason,

I did some searching around, and despite the "conflict" of memory that Windows XP is showing, you should still be able to talk to your ports.  Have you tried to communicate with the ports?  If you don't have an instrument you can always perform loopback tests to see if you can access the ports.  If you are unable to talk to the ports, then something else might be going on.

Let us know.

Regards,

Angela

Applications Engineer

[crix0r]

Hello Again -

Nah, I can not talk to any of the ports.  The self diag fails as well as the ports themselves do not seem to be functional...

Unfortunately 😞

[Angela M]

Hello,

This is indeed very strange behavior.  What is the part number for your board?  One other thing I would like to know is if this board will work on any other Windows XP machines.  It seems this is very particular to this one computer but I want to check.

Regards,

Angela

Applications Engineer