need laptop with serial port

[vector1]

looking for a laptop with serial port, has to have serial port. doing some efi tuning and usb to serial convertor doesn't cut the mustard because it is not all that reliable and keep getting kicked off on large file transfers. needs to have windows 2000 or newer, nothing fancy just basic stuff and reliable. these are usually the older laptops as they don't sell them now with serial port except special order.

pm me with what you have available and price.

thanks.

mark

[4RE KLR]

Try the local pawn shops. You will be amazed at what you can find there. Especially right now. The inventory is up and the prices are down.

My Brother in law runs one for the last twenty years.

[Ronbo]

Toshiba Tecra M5 (there on ebay pretty regular)...

Last of the 4x3 screen, business class laptops. I've bought about 5~6 of these for my business over the last year. Since they have 3yr warranty you can probably find one with a year or so of warranty left.

One I'm typing on right now has 2g core duo, 2g RAM, 120g HDD. Runs XPpro at least as fast as my desktop PC. Magnesium frame and full blown hardware based file encryption. Oh, and one 9 pin serial port.

Might as well get something that will actually run a fully patched copy of XP.

[Joe Wicked]

Just curious to what USB to serial you are using? We use a Keyspan 4 port USB-Serial hub at work and it does not drop communications. It is a bit expensive as far as USB-Serial goes, but maybe that is why it works. http://www.buy.com/prod/keyspan-usb-...203400864.html

[vector1]

thanks for the alternates, i'll look into them.

[427 S/O]

Don't forget craigslist..........

[TButtrick]

From Taltech

My new laptop does not have a serial port however it does have a USB port - what do I do?

Many new laptop computers and some desktop models are now being shipped without RS232 serial ports and instead are equipped with USB ports. Because of this we are often asked how to deal with this situation. The most common question is "Can WinWedge (or any other serial communications software) communicate over a USB port instead of a RS232 serial port?"

The quick answer:
Strictly speaking, the answer is "No" however you can still use WinWedge (or any other serial communications software) to communicate with RS232 serial devices through a USB port as long as you get a RS232 to USB converter. There are a number of companies that sell USB to RS232 converters as well as other add-on multi port serial adapters that connect to a PC through the USB port. All of these converters and add-on adapters are supplied with a Windows "device driver" that gets installed in your PC. The device driver software causes the PC to treat the USB to RS232 converter as if it were an actual RS232 serial port installed on the motherboard of the computer. Single port USB to RS232 converters are commonly available at most computer supply stores for under $20.00 and multi port add-on adapters are also widely available at reasonable prices. In fact TAL Technologies carries a full line of high quality add-on multi port serial adapters that connect to a PC through a USB port. For more information on the adapters that we sell, please visit: http://www.taltech.com/TALtech_web/products/rs232.html
All of these products will work just fine with WinWedge or any other Windows based serial communications software.

More Information:
Although USB stands for "Universal Serial Bus", the USB interface does not work anything at all like a standard RS232 serial port. Like RS232 serial ports, the USB ports on a PC are designed for interfacing external devices, however any device that is designed to connect to a USB port must come with a Windows "device driver" that essentially informs the operating system when the device is connected or disconnected to the PC and also provides a software interface to the device. A device driver is basically a small software program that provides a standard software interface to a particular hardware device. What this means is that practically any device could be designed to connect to a USB port as long as the device is supplied with a driver. The only problem with the USB interface design is that there is no way to simply open up a USB port and communicate with any device the same way that you can with a RS232 serial port. Any software that communicates with a particular USB device must communicate with the device through the driver that is supplied with the USB device. Fortunately, in the case of USB to RS232 converters, the drivers that come with them all emulate a standard RS232 communications port so you can use the USB to RS232 converters to communicate with any RS232 serial device using any standard Windows based serial communications software.

[Fred Douglass]

.....how 'bout a 20-year-old hottie who likes Cheerios? Ar-ar-ar-ar-OOOOOGAH!

Chow,

[bomelia]

General Mills or Kellogs?

Crap Freddie, no one beat you.

I'll take the hottie that likes cherrios.

Mike

[Fred Douglass]

..butt, I was gaffing with some of the noids down at WHOI (the oceanographic lash-up on Cape Cwodde, as you no doubt know), and I was ribbing them aboot being complete Gettalifes, since they sleep, eat and breath compootah stuff. It got around to my old days down at the Deep Submergence Lab (Dr. Blow-hard of the Titanic [ego], et al) and my almost-complete ignorance of keyboard stuff. One of the guys said: "Freddie, we've got someone who can get you up to speed in a day or two!"

Bean a fumb-duck, I said; "Send him over!"

At this point, I should interject that my wifey-wifey is spending days---nay weeks---uptown tendering care to The Thing That Will Not Die (aka me mother-in-law). So-o-o-o-o...I figured the person they'd send up to help get Congorilla up to snuff on the compootah would be a booger-flecked MIT undergrad. Well....the "MIT undergrad" part was correct....... BUTT......butt...(words fail me). She (repeat SHE) was evidently a hybrid between a mule and an onion---you know, a piece of ass that brings tears to your eyes. I shyte youse not. Circa 23, brunette with BRIGHT blue eyes, 4-million candlepower headlights---the works.

After my knees finished buckling---I invited her in. And...and...oooops...there's the foo keen phone.be right back......

Chow fer now,

[vector1]

wife back early?

[Fred Douglass]

.......I threw that in for Moikie.

Actually the little "lap-top" arrived, got me going (on the compootah, sillies) and taught me a few tricks (on the compootah, etc.). She was very, VERY cute and therein lies the anomoly. She really was at MIT for geophysics and "ocean systems" (whatever that is) but had been a math major in undergraduate years. She's still at WHOI and my wife just left to comfort TTTWND*--------h-m-m-m-m, what to do?

My guess is little Miss Compootah Cutie is c. 25 y.o. and is not lacking for company. Additionally, and sadly for yours truly, her tastes may not run to 63-year-old troglodytes. How-so-fookin'-ever, she may enjoy a cobra-ride now and then! Ar, etc.

*see reference to Mother in Law (earlier post)

Chow,

[Ronbo]

Older software and some older devices rely on hardware flow control on the RS-232 port, on older systems these flow controls tied to the IRQ (interupt signal) input to the CPU (processor).

Originally there were 15 hardware IRQ inputs, Win XP added "virtual IRQ's" that can go as high as 64 I think. Also USB serial adaptors add an additional "bridge" between the CPU's data bus and the serial UART chip (serial controller).

These additional hardware and software "bridges" aren't 100% backward compatable as they add timing issues on signals and can place the port itself off of it's normal default addresses and IRQ.

First step would be the software vendor for recommendations, otherwise try changing the COM port settings to hardware control as opposed to Xon-Xoff or software control and dropping the FIFO buffer down from it's default high setting.

As far as USB - serial adapters the Belkin has the least compatability issues I've seen, but I've also seen software that absoulutely will not work with them, typically from vendors that refuse to update their version 1.0 program from 10yrs ago.

[Fred Douglass]

........butt....the first few words of Ronbo's response (directly above) are HYSTERICAL to those few of us compootah ilieterates with warped minds! Ar, etc. My wife's in her 60th year, I'm 64, but last time I checked......

[Fred Douglass]

.......I can mispell "illiterate" in an almost infinite number of ways.....Ar-ar-ar-ooogle!