Computer guys HELP (and those of you using Megasquirt on new laptops)
 

Up until recently I've been using an old crap laptop that ran Windows XP for tuning my megasquirt. This laptop did not have a serial port - just USB, and so when I bought my DIYPNP Megasquirt I also purchased the serial to USB adapter. This all worked just fine.

Now, I've gotten a new laptop, and just now installed Megatune on it so I can do some tweaking on the car. This laptop of course also does not have any serial port, but has plenty of USB ports. It is running Windows 7.

Went out to the car, plugged the Megasquirt into the laptop using the serial -> USB adapter, and it doesn't read the megasquirt. I did some digging to find out how you're supposed to fix this and learned that I needed to check which com port my laptop had assigned to the USB (as far as I understand it).

Following instructions from DIYPNP, I went to the device manager, and in there there is SUPPOSED TO BE a category titled "Ports (COM & LPT)"

HOWEVER, this category doesn't exist in my device manager.

What is going on?? I've been trying to find further info on this online, but most topics I dig up deal with modems and don't really address my specific issue...

Why is the Ports category missing from my device manager?
Is there someone out there using a new-ish laptop, maybe with Windows 7 who has run into this and found a solution?
Am I missing drivers for Ports or something??

Any info greatly appreciated.
-Ryan

Windows 7 doesn't play well with MegaSquirts.

except that it works flawlessly for me and brainy. but that could be because we're MS3

There are no known issues using Win7 to tune a MegaSquirt. I have both Win7 home and pro on computers. However I would recommend TunerStudio as tuning software instead of the older MegaTune app, but I know that's not totally germane to the thread.

Perhaps you have some hidden items in your device manager. You can go to the "view" menu and click on "show hidden devices". Otherwise I'm unsure why your computer would have the category missing.

As an alternative, you can also try the portcheck utility. I've attached the newest version of portcheck, that has been recoded to work with the newest firmware versions to this post. If portcheck detects a working MegaSquirt, it will call out the device's port assignment and firmware definition.

I run an MS2 in my RX7 and Miata.

Laptop, dual install of XP and 7. Hardware is identical. XP is flawless, unbelievably perfect. 7 I can't get to work worth a damn. YMMV and all, but I've heard similar problems from other people - it could be due to the USB/Serial adapters and 7, granted. But my experience has 7 not working worth a damn with the MS2s, but XP works perfectly.

I can send you the driver I am using when I get home. Thats all it was with me.

completely false statement.


Windows 7 doesn't play well with particular serial drivers only made for Windows XP.

you might have to do a driver roll back and start from fresh the MS is probably saved under an exception to ignore.

Thanks all for the info so far.
In my own searching for an answer, I saw lots of reference to the COM ports possibly not being turned on in BIOS - went into my Toshiba's BIOS and there is no Port category to turn on/off, so that was a dead end.

Ben - thanks for the tips, I will go out to the car, plug into it and try the port check and report back. On the subject of TunerStudio, I've heard a lot of good things about it but so far was plenty content with MegaTune... once I get the laptop communicating with the MS properly, I may look into switching over to TunerStudio.

That would be excellent.

I don't entirely understand.

For the moment, don't try running the MS tuning software until you're certain you have the serial port itself working.

I honestly can't remember if Win7 comes with anything like Hyperterm built in, however you should be able to use Tera Term as a diagnostic. Install a dummy plug into your serial port which simply has pins 2 and 3 connected together. This causes everything transmitted out of the serial port to come right back in, you you will be able to type into the terminal window and see your characters echo back to you on the screen. (make sure you have local echo disabled in the terminal software.)

Once that's done, and you know the serial port is working, then move on to the tuning software.

Realistically you probably need to use TunerStudio and not even worry about MegaTune. MegaTune doesn't play nicely with the newer MS2 firmware versions or MS3.

FYI, just noticed something:

Where applicable, this advice pertains only to machines which have the serial ports built in. A serial port which is attached via USB, PCI, etc., will not be managed by the machine's BIOS.

You do occasionally find references in BIOS to serial ports even on machines that do not have actual, physical serial ports (laptops, mostly) as these machines often use RS-232 internally as a means for communicating with things like IrDA transcievers, but this is decreasingly common and still irrelevant to USB-attached RS-232 devices.

Ok lets say you plug in a new mouse or external dvd player to your pc via usb, 9/10 times your system will see the new hardware and run a config for it on the bios so that they will both work together. However if you inherently click on "ignore" for that device and "never ask me agian" then for all intensive purposes the device will cease to exist for your computer, until you either make it exist manualy or, you roll back the drivers/bios to a neutral setting.

I had two usb-serial adapters (Radioshack and Gigaware) not work for me. I then got another one (Belkin I think), and the computer recognized Megasquirt right away. Also switch to TunerStudio; It is a lot easier.