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New laptops w/ Serial Port?

S

seepy83

Platinum Member
Posting in Networking instead of the Notebooks forum because I know there are people here that require Serial Ports for console access.

Anyone know what new laptops have a Serial port? I'm preferably looking for something from HP because that's why my company is trying to standardize on, but it doesn't look like any of theirs have one.
 
Toshiba has models that do. I won't have a work machine without one. The USB serial dongles are always problematic.
 
spidey07 said:
Toshiba has models that do. I won't have a work machine without one. The USB serial dongles are always problematic.
Click to expand...

I don't know what chipset it uses, but the belkin one has always worked for me.

Modelworks said:
Any of the FTDI chipset based USB-serial converters should work fine with anything that needs a serial port. I use them all the time for hardware development.
http://www.usbgear.com/Serial-usb-adapter/index.cfm
Click to expand...

Would a docking station be ok? Many laptops have docking stations that have serial ports. We use IBM/Lenovo laptops but we MUST have the dock because our special equipment is serial communication only.
 
Gillbot said:
I don't know what chipset it uses, but the belkin one has always worked for me.



Would a docking station be ok? Many laptops have docking stations that have serial ports. We use IBM/Lenovo laptops but we MUST have the dock because our special equipment is serial communication only.
Click to expand...


I know the FTDI chips are 100% standards compliant. There is really no way for the device to know it is using the adapter.
 
Gillbot said:
I don't know what chipset it uses, but the belkin one has always worked for me.



Would a docking station be ok? Many laptops have docking stations that have serial ports. We use IBM/Lenovo laptops but we MUST have the dock because our special equipment is serial communication only.
Click to expand...

Belkins have been the worst for me, anytime i hit space when browsing a switch/router config they lock up and i have to restart my term session
 
I use a random Korean one that I found in a box somewhere...never had a problem with it.

The only issue I can see it having is if I plug it in to a different USB port, it will come up as a different COM device. That's easily solved, though, by plugging it in to the same USB port each time.
 
I've used a "Prolific" (made in Taiwan) branded USB-to-Serial adapter that works fine with an external dialup fax modem.
 
I've had no problem w/ most of the USB to RS-232 adapters, except when you need to issue a break sequence to do password reset, it doesn't seem to work well w/ the adapters.
 
I have the above Probook at work and really like it. Its core i5, mine has the 1600 x 900 screen which. The display is driven by the Intel GMA, though if wanted I think there is a version with ATI Radeon video adapter.

Rob
 
robmurphy said:
I have the above Probook at work and really like it. Its core i5, mine has the 1600 x 900 screen which. The display is driven by the Intel GMA, though if wanted I think there is a version with ATI Radeon video adapter.

Rob
Click to expand...

Someone (not in this thread) also recommended the Probook 6550 to me. There's definitely nothing "wrong" with the Probooks, and I'll probably end up going that route. But HP would be making a lot more money off of me if their Elitebooks had a serial port (cause i'd be going that route for the higher resolution screen, better wlan card, vid card, etc). This machine has to last me the next 4+ years...
 
+1 to spidey: >I won't have a work machine without one.

No USB adapter gets serial timing exactly right. That's not because any particular one isn't as good as another, it's because of the fundamental design of USB is different enough than serial to be a mismatch. (USB 1.1/2.0 is a packet-based half duplex link) Many embedded kinds of things do not work, or sometimes work, with USB serial adapters. You're risking a very bad day if you try, say, flashing a device's firmware using such an adapter.

Even for a simple console... when it's a late night and things on the network aren't going well - you want simple, proven, reliable tools at your disposal.

(And BTW, has anyone noticed that you can't get a working+reliable PCI/PCI-E serial port card anymore either? What's with that? They're all MOSCHIP or similar cheapies that are problematic)
 
cmetz said:
You're risking a very bad day if you try, say, flashing a device's firmware using such an adapter.
Click to expand...

I've flashed a Cisco switch with a 9mb firmware over XMODEM with my USB-to-Serial dongle and had no problems.

I was mostly pissed that the Cisco 3550 doesn't have a tftp client in its preboot environment, but that had nothing to do with the dongle.
 
All the Dell Latitude "e" series can have an optional "legacy" attachment added to them. It connects where the dock port is and adds all the legacy ports (serial, printer, PS2, etc). Very light, attaches well.
 
My Dell D630 is a generation (or two) old, but still relatively current. It has a serial port. Last time I checked, my E6400 didn't (not 100% sure on this)
 
cmetz said:
Many embedded kinds of things do not work, or sometimes work, with USB serial adapters. You're risking a very bad day if you try, say, flashing a device's firmware using such an adapter.
Click to expand...

Which devices aren't working ? I've flashed everything from AVR , Pic and more using serial adapters . The only things that have problems are circuits trying to use the serial port for things it was never designed for, like powering the device you are trying to program. There are more than enough buffers in the interface to handle timing problems.


(And BTW, has anyone noticed that you can't get a working+reliable PCI/PCI-E serial port card anymore either? What's with that? They're all MOSCHIP or similar cheapies that are problematic)
Click to expand...
http://www.amazon.com/1port-Professi.../dp/B00006B8C5

Or if you want one that runs at the older +-15V levels:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-022-_-Product

Most of the time it isn't the ports fault it is windows. Windows mucks with the port timings .
 
Last edited:
Panasonic Toughbook models 52 and 53 have db9 serial port.

My techs use them to connect to our various equipment in the field.

Nine pin serial ports are still going on.

kingsy1st
 
IF you have a prolific-based serial dongle, try earlier drivers. There's one issue of drivers (July 2011, I think) that works with nearly everything running Win7.

Newer / updated drivers have never worked on anything I've ever tried them on (radios, consoles, programmers, etc.
 
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