"COM port in use"- Solved!
Vern Graner
Posts: 337
So I had a snag today when I opened my Basic Stamp Editor on my Windows XP laptop...
The Basic Stamp Editor, the Rogue Robotics uMP3 configurator, heck even Hyperterm declared the COM port was "in use"... (wtf?)
After much research, rebooting, googling etc. (about 3 hours of dev time lost!) I discovered that a video driver (called x10drivers.exe) I had dloaded from X10.com for my USB video capture module had installed a system-level service called X10 Device Network Service! (wtf^2?!).
Now why a "video driver" would install system-level service that runs CONSTANTLY for a device I only plug in on occasion..? Well, I really can't say how I feel about that!
Anyway, this service not only ran "automaticly" every time I started the machine, but it had taken over the COM port as well. Once I disabled this service, everything returned to normal. Of course it's COB so I won't get to do any programming today, but I wanted to take a second to share this information in case someone else does a search on this problem, they won't have to spend the entire afternoon tracking it down.
Vern
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The Basic Stamp Editor, the Rogue Robotics uMP3 configurator, heck even Hyperterm declared the COM port was "in use"... (wtf?)
After much research, rebooting, googling etc. (about 3 hours of dev time lost!) I discovered that a video driver (called x10drivers.exe) I had dloaded from X10.com for my USB video capture module had installed a system-level service called X10 Device Network Service! (wtf^2?!).
Now why a "video driver" would install system-level service that runs CONSTANTLY for a device I only plug in on occasion..? Well, I really can't say how I feel about that!
Anyway, this service not only ran "automaticly" every time I started the machine, but it had taken over the COM port as well. Once I disabled this service, everything returned to normal. Of course it's COB so I won't get to do any programming today, but I wanted to take a second to share this information in case someone else does a search on this problem, they won't have to spend the entire afternoon tracking it down.
Vern
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Vern Graner CNE/CNA/SSE | "If the network is down, then you're Senior Systems Engineer | obviously incompetent so why are we Texas Information Services | paying you? Of course,if the network http://www.txis.com | is up, then we obviously don't need Austin Office 512 328-8947 | you, so why are we paying you?" ©VLG