ASCOM COMM PORT DOESN'T EXIST

[Tris]

Following a laptop failure, I've just re-installed latest Ascom  latest Starry night 6, and latest Autostar Suite on a 3 year old Win7 laptop. I can't now connect to the scope on Comm 4 or any other Comm. Ascom diagnostics says that no ports exist. I gather that now ports cannot be found through the Windows device manager. So i don't know what is using the ports, or how to open one. i have tried to force a port with Ascom but I don' think i got that right. 

 

Any thoughts anyone?

[Dr_Ju_ju]

open control panel \ device manager, open the 'ports (com & lpt)', in there should be your device, double click the device, then select the port settings and advanced button, you can then either update the Ascom driver to the displayed port, or change the port to what the Ascom driver thinks it should be.... 

[Mav359]

Ports can still be found in device manager alright, i run my kit off several PC's & Laptops Windows 7 & 10 and device manager shows the port numbers fine.  If it isn't i'd suggest windows was having issues.

As for the laptop you mentioned its older, do you / have you still been using it? Do you know that the USB Bus works ie. what else have you plugged in to verfy that the laptop is working.

Have you anything else running using the COM port? Celestron's for instance only allow a connection to the scope via the handset and so to connect more then one software package to the mount at the same time you need to use P.O.T.H. and connect all the software to that.

Check your cable to the mount, i recently had issues connectting my scope and it turned out that there was a slight break in the cable, once i fixed this all was good.

Lastly why did the laptop fail? was the mount connected at the time of the laptop failure? if it was power related perhaps it has damaged the mount & or the cable, swap out the cable for one you know works.

 

[Tris]

This is all really helpful, and thanks. I shall go quiet now for a day or two and follow some of this up. Then I shall report back - good or bad. If bad, I shall be more specific and include some screenshots, if that is possible on this site. 

 

What I am aware of is that the previous lappy had had a brand new windows 7 installation, than no programmes put on it, except for the Astro ones. This lappy  is full of bits and pieces, having been used by my wife for some years. I have read about "old fax programmes" causing this problem, so I might try to find some of those.

 

Both lappys are older than I said. This one is about 7 years old, and the old one more like 13 years old. The old one had to go, it would no longer start, and was falling apart.

[Tris]

Thanks very much for your help everyone. This problem is resolved.

It was a missing driver, which also seemed to make the ports difficult to find. It was a straightforward job to download and install the right driver. All is now working, and running happily, through Com3.  Now I just need to decide whether I prefer to use Autostar suite or Starry Night for my guidance. 

 

My Astroshed is a home made one, but works very well.  it is Sooooo nice to be able to leave the scope permanently set up and not to have to wheel it around. Anyone want to buy a set of 3 wheels for a 12" meade?