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

ID: Q83585


The information in this article applies to:
  • Microsoft Windows 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:

  1. Type
    debug


  2. 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.


  3. To exit DEBUG, at the hyphen (-) prompt, type
    Q


Additional query words: 3.0 3.0a 3.1

Keywords :
Version : WINDOWS:3.0,3.0a,3.1,3.11
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type :


Last Reviewed: September 30, 1999
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