Windows Err Msg: Unable to Initialize Ports (Control Panel)

Last reviewed: November 23, 1994
Article ID: Q83585

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Windows operating system versions 3.0, 3.0a, 3.1, 3.11

SYMPTOMS

When you try to access the 386 Enhanced icon in the Control Panel, the following error may appear:

   Unable to initialize ports

After this message is displayed, the 386 Enhanced window can be accessed; however, no ports appear in the Device Contention box.

CAUSES

This problem can be caused by either of the following:

There are no Base I/O address values in the BIOS table for any of the COM or parallel ports in the BIOS table.

-or-

There is no DEVICE=*VCD statement in the [386Enh] section of the SYSTEM.INI.

NOTE: VCD is the virtual communications device driver that virtualizes the COM ports. It arbitrates COM port usage between virtual machines.

MORE INFORMATION

To check the Base I/O address values, proceed as follows:

Type
```
      debug
```
At the hyphen (-) prompt, type
```
      d40:0
```
For example:
```
      debug
      -d40:0
```
After you type debug d40:00, the following HEX string appears:
```
      0040:0000  F8 03 F8 02 00 00 00 00-78 03 00 00 00 00 00 0
```
The values displayed may vary from machine to machine (the values listed above are the most common values).
The error message occurs if all the values after 0040:0000 are zeros.
To exit DEBUG, at the hyphen (-) prompt, type
```
      Q
```

KBCategory: kbenv kberrmsg
KBSubcategory: win30 win31 wincomm windrvr
Additional reference words: 3.0 3.0a 3.1

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Last reviewed: November 23, 1994
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