Lost serial and game ports

[Borg20001]

Can anyone render me assistance? I have lost access to my serial ports and my gameport. I can see that they are listed under device manager (in Win95) but when I go to access them I get an error message saying that the Hardware is not connected. I have a pci winmodem that the system can no longer find. I tried to run the add hardware and had it search for any new hardware but it did not find anything new. Then I tried to manually have it find the winmodem but it could not. The winmodem is on com3. The gameport is on an old ISA soundblaster pro 2 card but that is not found anymore. I can still print so the parallel port seems to be ok. According to Fixit Tools 2000, I have 3 serial ports and 1 parallel port but I do not know how to re-establish access to them.

I tried to reinstall my sound card drivers but that did not seem to retrieve access to the gameport.

Any help would be Greatly Appreciated!!

 

[Scott Newton]

What was the last thing you did prior to losing your access? Add hardware, install program etc?

 

[Borg20001]

I had some problems with the video card, turned out the kids had some how unseated it (maybe jarred the pc with their feet). I reseated the video card and then was able to get system up and running, but had a problem with the gameport. Reinstalled the original drivers for the soundboard (from OEM site) but could not access the gameport. Later tried to go online and found that the winmodem was no longer accessable. Tried to reinstall the winmodem by manually selecting the drivers etc. but no luck.

Have toyed with the idea of disconnecting the soundcard and winmodem, powering up and then powering down, then connecting them and letting the Win95 plug n play find them and hopefully install them.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

 

[Borg20001]

Any feedback is greatly appreciated.

 

[Mindlink]

Try deleting the hardware in question from device manager and rebooting. You should do this in safe mode, since windows will sometimes incorrectly try to reinstall available drivers if you are in normal mode. Of course, if the winmodem/audio driver software comes with uninstall features, you should remove those before booting to safe mode. You can access the boot menu by holding F8 before the "starting windows" message/boot logo appears.

BTW, delete everything (ie, the necessary ports, your sound card/game port drivers, which are usually linked, and the modem) at the same time. There is some possibility of duplicate installs as well (from when you reinstalled the game port driver), which can be a killer with certain configs, so leave no copies. You may not be able to see these duplicates in normal mode, but they will all appear in safe mode.

When you reboot, hit cancel for the "look for drivers" for the cards (modem/audio/game port), and let windows detect and install the ports and restart as necessary. Then install the drivers of the cards from their CD's. If you don't have the driver disks handy, go find them on the net first.

This is the only solution I can see, and hopefully this will correct the problems. However, I cannot guarantee that this will not make things worse, and you may need to flounder a little to find the right combo, so use at your own risk. On the other hand, if windows does not detect the hardware after reinstall, then you've got a real big problem. Just in case, please make sure to write down the current configs for the devices you're deleting before trashing them.

Well, warnings aside, I hope this helps. Let us know how it turns out.

Regards.

 

[Scott Newton]

On a pesimistic (sp) note, you could have shocked the mobo.

On a side note. Cards can become unseated by the heating/cooling of the mobo and components shrinking and expanding. Go ahead and blame the kids though.... Works for missing cookies, candy and gas at my house.

 

[Mindlink]

Well, why dispair until you need to. Dealing with windows device drivers is almost as bad as having a shocked mobo at any rate But to be fair, it is a definite possibility.

 

[Borg20001]

Thanks for all the inputs, I will give it the old "trial and error" but with documentation first to see if I can resurrect these ports!

Thanks again. I'll let you know how it turns out.

 

[AKA]

Remove suspects from device manager. Reboot.. go into bios and make sure the ports etc are enabled or reset to defaults. On reboot Win95 might not automatically reinstall them.. so run the Add New Hardware Wizard.


Scott Newton
"Works for missing cookies, candy and gas at my house." GAS? I told you to get rid of that meth lab!!

 

[Scott Newton]

Meth lab.... Hey, I haven't heard that excuse yet. I will try it next time my cop buddies come over.

 

[Borg20001]

"This is the only solution I can see, and hopefully this will correct the problems. However, I cannot guarantee that this will not make things worse, and you may need to flounder a little to find the right combo, so use at your own risk. On the other hand, if windows does not detect the hardware after reinstall, then you've got a real big problem. Just in case, please make sure to write down the current configs for the devices you're deleting before trashing them."


Text

So to get the current configs for the devices that I am deleting, do I access that information under the device manager? And just note what devices I have hooked up? Or is there some file that I need to archive from Windows 95 and copy back in case of disaster?

Thanks for the feedback.

 

[Borg20001]

Where do I find the current configs for the devices that I am deleting and then reinstalling with the pnp feature? Do I just write down what I can find in Device Manager on these ports and modem?

Thanks

 

[Borg20001]

Update:

Well I went into Safe Mode and removed all the suspect ports and hardware.

I lost com3, but was able to config the winmodem to com2 and it works.

As to the gameport, I removed the soundboard - Soundblaster Pro 2 and rebooted but Windows did not find it. I then manually configured it using the old drivers but it would not work. Fortunately (based on advice here) I had recorded the old configuration of interrupts etc and when I edited them back to the old setup the soundcard worked again, however, the Gameport still did not work.

I guess I have to find an interrupt that is not taken or does not conflict.

When I was recording the old setup, I noticed that it said that there was a conflict and that was why at least part of the sound card was not working (at least that's what I think). Maybe that is why the gameport can not be found. Is there anyway to resolve the interrupt conflicts (or whatever else may be conflicting)?

Thanks for the advice and help!

Borg20001