DIE COM PORTS DIE

[BadThad]

We have all this push to elmininate legacy hardware from mobos, but COM ports just won't die. I'd like to see them gone forever and the IRQ's they waste allocated to the PCI or USB buses. Yes, I do realize there is the rare device that interfaces via a COM port, but the only way the mfg's of such equipment/instrumentation are going to update to USB is to start removing these stupid ports from the mainboards.

Oddly, the biggest push has been to eliminate the floppy drive/interface. I saw LONG LIVE FLOPPY drives. Every try to install a 3rd party mass storage device while installing WinXP on a system without a floppy drive? AHAHAHAHAHA Even MS won't let the floppy die. I say leave the floppy alone and KILL the COM ports forever and give us those IRQ's!

 

[Cheezeit]

i like tacos

yes, i don't think they should be there either. i think mobo makers just put them there so they can say they have one more port

 

[ryanv12]

I agree that they shouldn't be there. they're pretty much a waste of space. I have a USB keyboard, USB mouse, USB printer, USB joystick, USB external hard drive, Firewire sound card etc. If there's anyone that's still using these ports, why not just include a PCI add-in card with motherboards? Chances are if they use those ports they're old equipment anyways and will soon be replaced. I tried to get rid of my floppy as well, but as soon as I got a SATA drive, that ended that notion. I hope Longhorn comes with support to boot from flash media and those kinds of devices.

 

[Aenslead]

ABIT was the first to start the trend, with a K7 series motherboard which did off any legacy ports, except floppy.

 

[BadThad]

Originally posted by: Aenslead
ABIT was the first to start the trend, with a K7 series motherboard which did off any legacy ports, except floppy.

What did they do with IRQ's 3 and 4 on that mobo?

 

[jose]

Just go into the bios and disable the com port...

As long as I need them the mobo manf's won't get rid of them..

 

[Jayczar]

Originally posted by: jose
Just go into the bios and disable the com port...

:thumbsup:

 

[BadThad]

Originally posted by: jose
Just go into the bios and disable the com port...

As long as I need them the mobo manf's won't get rid of them..

DUH, anyone with half computer building skill knows that. :roll:

However, the port is still physically present and the IRQ's are lost. I'm saying kill the port(s) and allocate the the IRQ's to another bus....WE NEED THOSE IRQ's since there's only 16 to go around. Remapping IRQ's via IRQ9 and sharing with a million devices can cause issues.

 

[jose]

Well badthad, if you didn't get the joke, you can always break off the com port w/ a hammer..

 

[Concillian]

Originally posted by: BadThad

However, the port is still physically present and the IRQ's are lost. I'm saying kill the port(s) and allocate the the IRQ's to another bus....WE NEED THOSE IRQ's since there's only 16 to go around. Remapping IRQ's via IRQ9 and sharing with a million devices can cause issues.

What POS mobo are you working with?

I've had no problems utilizing IRQ 3 and 4 on my recent mobos when I disable all COM ports.

I'm not sure what your issue is anyway, I haven't had IRQ conflict related issues since nVidia started making mobos and I could stop using those wonderful VIA AXP boards. It used to be 1 IRQ for 1 device, and things would often not work otherwise, but now I just enable everything I need, let the mobo put whatever it wants on whatever IRQ and everything seems to work fine.

 

[BraveSirRobbin]

If you were into home automation, you would not only need the com ports, but purchase additional hardware to get more!

I have an Edgeport 8 from Inside Out Networks which (via a USB interface) gives me eight (in addition to the stock two) additional com ports for my Home Automation server (total of six in use).

The automation hardware is starting to go with ethernet interfaces for their new products, but it's a slow process.

 

[Painman]

I think the last time I had to manually assign system resources to a device or worry about an IRQ conflict was sometime in 1999.