Serial port problem (Suunto Stinger PC-Interface)

Greetings:

I am experiencing a problem whereby my Win2k box is not recoginizing a
device attached to the COM1 port.....or any serial port for that
matter.

At first I thought that by virture of "plug-n-play", once I plugged in
the unit to the port, a window would pop-up informing me of the new
hardware. Didn't work that way.

The instructions for the unit itself (a Suunto Stinger Dive
watch/computer) are to first attach the data trasnfer craddle WITHOUT
the watch attached, start the software and use the Transfer menu to
instruct the computer to search the various ports to find the craddle.
No matter which port I attach it to, I get the same error message,
"Your computer did not find the device on any of its ports".

Using going thru the control panel, I found an option that reports
back the status of the ports. They all report back as functioning
properly.....but I'm not too sure how thorough that test is.

Can anyone suggest ways to either test the ports more thoroughly or
otherwise troubleshoot the device interfaces to isolate (and fix) the
problem? I did go so far as to ohm out the serial cable. Its fine.

Assistance appreicated.

Thanks!

Quiet Voice wrote:

> Greetings:
>
> I am experiencing a problem whereby my Win2k box is not recoginizing a
> device attached to the COM1 port.....or any serial port for that
> matter.
>
> At first I thought that by virture of "plug-n-play", once I plugged in
> the unit to the port, a window would pop-up informing me of the new
> hardware. Didn't work that way.
>
> The instructions for the unit itself (a Suunto Stinger Dive
> watch/computer) are to first attach the data trasnfer craddle WITHOUT
> the watch attached, start the software and use the Transfer menu to
> instruct the computer to search the various ports to find the craddle.
> No matter which port I attach it to, I get the same error message,
> "Your computer did not find the device on any of its ports".
>
> Using going thru the control panel, I found an option that reports
> back the status of the ports. They all report back as functioning
> properly.....but I'm not too sure how thorough that test is.
>
> Can anyone suggest ways to either test the ports more thoroughly or
> otherwise troubleshoot the device interfaces to isolate (and fix) the
> problem? I did go so far as to ohm out the serial cable. Its fine.
>
> Assistance appreicated.
>

I recently experienced a problem with the interface unit for a Uwatec
AirX computer. It also connected through the serial port.

I have 2 suggestions.

(1)- My problem was due to the computer (a laptop) was plugged into the
AC power source while trying to download. Why this caused a problem, I
don't know, but when I ran off the laptop battery, the transfer went fine.

(2)- If suggestion #1 doesn't help or isnt applicable, try turning off
the computer. Connecting everything together, the PC, the interface and
the Suunto, THEN turn on the PC and let it boot up.

If that doesn't work....you are on your own.

On 9 Aug 2004 10:15:31 -0700, voice_of_reason@australia.edu (Quiet
Voice) wrote:

>Can anyone suggest ways to either test the ports more thoroughly or
>otherwise troubleshoot the device interfaces to isolate (and fix) the
>problem? I did go so far as to ohm out the serial cable. Its fine.

Are you running Hotsynch for a PDA? Hotsynch will completely hog the
serial ports and not allow them to be used for anything while it is in
the Systray.



--- Rich
http://richlockyer.tripod.com/

Hi,

Thanks for all the responses.

No, no hotsync....at least none that I'm aware of.

I will try the suggestion of setting everything up FIRST...and THEN
powering up the PC.

In the meantime, I was hoping that someone might know of and suggest a
util within Win2k that performs a more "active" test on serial ports
to insure that they are functioning and detect anything that might be
hanging off it...or hanging it up.

Back in the "good ole days" I had a package from Norton Utilities that
performed such a test. You plugged shorting plugs into the serial and
parallel ports and then ran the test. 30 seconds later it spit out a
comprehensive report. But that was a looooonnng time ago. If I scoured
around here really really hard there's only about a 15% chance I could
even find those plugs.

Anyone know of anything like that embedded in Win2k somewhere??

Thanks again!

Rich Lockyer <rlockyer@linkline.DONTSPAMME.com> wrote in message news:<p3sgh0hc16j8fqq5hhfs0fqn018sc7lk7g@4ax.com>. ..
> On 9 Aug 2004 10:15:31 -0700, voice_of_reason@australia.edu (Quiet
> Voice) wrote:
>
> >Can anyone suggest ways to either test the ports more thoroughly or
> >otherwise troubleshoot the device interfaces to isolate (and fix) the
> >problem? I did go so far as to ohm out the serial cable. Its fine.
>
> Are you running Hotsynch for a PDA? Hotsynch will completely hog the
> serial ports and not allow them to be used for anything while it is in
> the Systray.
>
>
>
> --- Rich
> http://richlockyer.tripod.com/

On Mon, 9 Aug 2004 10:15:31 -0700 , voice_of_reason@australia.edu
(Quiet Voice) wrote:

>Greetings:
>
>I am experiencing a problem whereby my Win2k box is not recoginizing a
>device attached to the COM1 port.....or any serial port for that
>matter.
>
>At first I thought that by virture of "plug-n-play", once I plugged in
>the unit to the port, a window would pop-up informing me of the new
>hardware. Didn't work that way.
>
>The instructions for the unit itself (a Suunto Stinger Dive
>watch/computer) are to first attach the data trasnfer craddle WITHOUT
>the watch attached, start the software and use the Transfer menu to
>instruct the computer to search the various ports to find the craddle.
>No matter which port I attach it to, I get the same error message,
>"Your computer did not find the device on any of its ports".
>
>Using going thru the control panel, I found an option that reports
>back the status of the ports. They all report back as functioning
>properly.....but I'm not too sure how thorough that test is.
>
>Can anyone suggest ways to either test the ports more thoroughly or
>otherwise troubleshoot the device interfaces to isolate (and fix) the
>problem? I did go so far as to ohm out the serial cable. Its fine.
>
>Assistance appreicated.


Do you by any chance have something else grabbing that serial port?

I had a situation where the software from some long forgotten UPS
monitoring application (hardware no longer connected) was grabbing the
serial port on very boot - consequently the label printer I was trying
to install on the serial port wouldn't work

Also guilty of this can be PDA synching software. Here on my main
workstation, I have to kill the Palm HotSynch monitoring software
before I can do anything else with that port.

M