Win 10 Anniversary Edition

[Chrissaf]

Just to share with the forum.

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Tonight I was offered the Win 10 update which I chose to install (dedicated RM laptop). The update process took the best part of three hours to complete.

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Upon completion, my first act was to test interoperability with RM and Elite. Before  starting RM I checked in Device Manager and found my Elite USB serial interface comm port had been re-assigned to Comm 3 from its normal Comm 4. Thus I was prepared and expecting the handshaking to fail when I started RM which it did).

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Entered 'System Settings' and re-assigned RM to Comm 3. Closed and restarted RM. Elite was now correctly identified.A quick check of basic operations (loco and point control) showed all was well.

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So for me at least, the Win 10 Anniversary Update went well without any issues I can find so far. There have been reports of this update breaking USB connectivity on some PC's.

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PS - My laptop is an Acer V571P with an Intel i5

[Fishmanoz]

So Chris, if the RM USB was previously on port 4, I take it other things were assigned to 1-3 and that those other things are still there?  Meaning Anniversary edition has assigned things in a different order?

[Chrissaf]

No Fishy.

My laptop is dedicated solely for RM. For instance, if I power up my laptop without the Elite connected. Device Manager has no entry whatsoever for ANY com port, serial USB or Parallel - I don't even have a printer installed on this particular PC - I keep it as software clean as possible. It has the Windows OS and RM loaded, no other additional SW (other than my preferred ESET AV SW). Maybe this is why I don't have the issues as reported on the forum by others.

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If I then connect the Elite, so that Plug'n'Play loads the USB Serial Driver. It, for reasons that are a mystery, completely ignored Comm ports 1, 2 & 3 and used Comm 4 for the Elite. After the upgrade to Anniversary Edition it chose Comm 3 (Comm 1 & 2 are still ignored and are not listed in DM for any other device for which there are none attached anyway).

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Probability is that Comm 1 & 2 are reserved for other things in the OS, but would only show up listed in DM if one or other of those other reserved things (whatever they are) are connected. For example a 9 pin D type serial port, or a printer parallel port, if my laptop had them, which it doesn't.

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Hope that helps to clarify.

[96RAF]

@chris

Ive read somewhere that com1 is reserved (maybe RM manual and probably was for a printer) but that you can overule DM and allocate the port to your attached USB device.

Rob

[Chrissaf]

I believe, but maybe wrong, that historically Microsoft reserved Com 1 for a RS232 serial port and Com 2 for a Centronics Parallel Printer port. This goes back to the pre-USB days of computing. I daresay, AC will correct me if I am wrong.

[Fishmanoz]

I think you are right on the reservation and Rob on the override.

[Augustus Caesar]

COM ports 1 and 2 in modern PC's and laptops are reserved. COM1 is a DB9 socket and COM2 generally a DB25 socket. COM1 is male and COM2 is female. COM1 is generally also assigned to the 15 pin VGA output on a laptop for example. COM 2 is generally hardwired to the motherboard and if no hardware is soldered to that area of the board COM2 will not be available.

 

COM ports 3 upward can be re-assigned occasionally if an older piece of hardware is required and attached to a USB socket via a serial port adaptor. This is rare today as the data transfer rate is positively slow compared to USB even with the adaptor. This would be re-assigned as COM1.

 

By Windows upgrading to newer versions it may be that the USB generic driver has a small rewrite which may re-assign USB ports. This isn't common though but does happen.

If you kept plugging in and unplugging hardware (like the eLink or Elite) to any USB port on the laptop or PC then you will find the same number always stays with the same port. This is why I advise ALWAYS to use the same socket when unplugging your Elite or eLink to use that port for another device. This means the machine will generally find the driver and port easily when plugging the hardware for the railway back in the same socket. On odd occasions this sometimes doesn't happen when certain other hardware tends to be forceful and 'takes over' the socket assignment.

 

In a nutshell, COMs 1 and 2 cannot be overwritten or changed in any way and sometimes will not even show up in Device Manager at all until something is connected. The latter is true, of course, for USB ports 3 upward. This is because this is their natural default state. Only when hardware is detected will they show in Device Manager. The lowest USB number that is assigned will be 3 generally speaking unless the manufacturer has deigned it necessary to obliterate COMs 1 and/or 2 from the motherboard.

 

If the hardware being used externally that fits to USB contains further hardware or chips that require COM1 status then that hardware can itself assign a COM1 or even COM2 port.

 

Hope that helps... :-)