Re: Driving and Sailing ... where to go from here(?)

Jack,

Thank you very much for your extensive reply. A few notes interspersed
below:

On Fri, 16 Feb 2007 12:03:41 -0500, Jack Erbes <jackerbes@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

David wrote:
<snip>
..So I bought an USB to Serial converter. And
another. And another. After three tries, and many, many hours, I finally
just gave up and returned the new laptop, because that was the main
application that I wanted it for.
<snip>

Your results are uncharacteristic. I own three different serial to USB
adapters and all of them worked on the first try.
Given my experiences, that amazes me! And I am happy for you! <g>

The setup process for those adapters is invariably that I have to run a
setup.exe program from a CD-ROM that came with the adapter to install a
driver before I plug the device in.
Same...

And I generally have to lead the New Hardware Found wizard to a folder
containing an *.inf file and some driver files the first time the
adapter is plugged in.
Same...

Once the drivers are installed and the serial to USB adapter is plugged
in, if you are watching the Device Manager, you will see new (virtual)
COM port appear in the Ports (COM & LPT) category.
Same...

If, when you go to the Device Manager, you see any devices with yellow
question marks on them, those are usually from earlier failed attempts
to plug and play a new piece of hardware.
But I did not find any of these question marks in there...

If any of the yellow question marks are from earlier failed attempts to
plug and play your serial to USB inverter that will stay there forever
unless you remove it. And nothing will happen (no New Hardware wizard)
will run when you plug the adapter in.

If you want to try again to install an adapter, you should first remove
(uninstall) the yellow question mark device caused by your serial to USB
adapter.
although I did do several uninstalls, as you have said.

<snip>
So, finally, I am left with the original question, where should I go from
here? I would sincerely appreciate anyone's thoughts. (Including, I
guess, even the obvious one.)

Another way to get USB devices attached to a laptop without hardware
serial ports is to use a PCMCIA (aka PC Card or Card Bus) serial port
card. The PCMCIA slots are soon to be a vanishing species too, they'll
be replaced by the ExpressCard:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCMCIA
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ExpressCard

I have Socket and Qlynx brand PCMCIA serial port adapters and they both
have worked fine on every PC (desktop or laptop) I have tried them on.
Again, there is a process for setting up the drivers for them. Those
cards have a short cable(s) attached with DB-9F connectors. Instant
gratification for anyone used to looking for hardware serial port
connectors.

http://www.synchrotech.com/products/serial-io-pcmcia-card_01.html

I got my cards on eBay for much less than the MSRP.

Good luck with all this, I'm sure what you want to do can be done.

Re the PCMCIA and ExpressCards, thank you, I will store that info away,
just in case.

However, the more I consider it, and since I now don't even have that
laptop anymore to experiment with, I think that I am leaning more and more
toward just getting a new USB-capable GPSr, to go with a new laptop.

But, as with the other folks, I wish I had been smart enough to have talked
with you earlier! <g>

Thanks and best regards,
David
.

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