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Silicom Serial PC Card

Discussion in 'PC Hardware' started by Christer, 2009/04/11.

  1. 2009/04/11
    Christer

    Christer Geek Member Staff Thread Starter

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    I have an old PCMCIA card with an RS232 port. It's of Win95/98/NT-vintage and I have lost the drivers. Not that it matters since they probably wouldn't work with WinXP. Does anyone know if there are drivers for Win2K or even WinXP? Has anyone got it to work on WinXP?

    (See the attached PDF.)

    Christer
     

    Attached Files:

    Christer,
    #1
  2. 2009/04/11
    mattman

    mattman Inactive Alumni

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    Always the same story Christer, when a new version of Windows comes out, if the hardware manufacturer doesn't make drivers for it, it cannot be used.

    At the moment I don't have a lot of time for searching. See if you can find the model of controller in it. Sometimes Plug and Play can identify the controller even though it doesn't have drivers to install. Look at if there is any information about it in Device Mangler.

    If you can identify the controller, it might be included in other similar hardware and there might be XP drivers for those. So don't concentrate on that particular manufacturer, concentrate on the controller that runs it.

    Any old laptops around with Win 98 on them? I am coming across quite a few now.

    Matt
     
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  4. 2009/04/12
    Christer

    Christer Geek Member Staff Thread Starter

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    It comes from a Win95 lappy but I found no drivers on a floppy or anywhere on the hard disk. I don't think they will work on WinXP. Win2K drivers might.

    I'll try to find out more about the controller.

    Thanks,
    Christer
     
    Christer,
    #3
  5. 2009/04/12
    Christer

    Christer Geek Member Staff Thread Starter

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    There are no drivers loaded on the Win95 lappy, it just shows up as "COM4" and it states "no drivers needed or loaded" or words to that meaning.

    Christer
     
    Christer,
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  6. 2009/04/12
    paul_doo

    paul_doo Inactive

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    Won't likely work, but try puting it on com port 3. Unless you have a dialup modem on there.
     
    paul_doo,
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  7. 2009/04/12
    wildfire

    wildfire Getting Old

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    You'll probably find there is another driver installed for the actual card, e.g. for WinModems you still need the modem driver but the virtual com port wouldn't require any.
     
    wildfire,
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  8. 2009/04/12
    Christer

    Christer Geek Member Staff Thread Starter

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    Hi Paul!

    I'm not sure I understand what you mean. On the Win95 lappy, there's only one PCMCIA slot into which the Silicom Serial PC Card is inserted. In device manager, it shows up as COM4 and apparently, no drivers have been installed (none are needed).

    On the WinXP lappy, when inserted into any of the two PCMCIA slots, drivers are required but WinXP doesn't have them and I can't find them on the web. If there are drivers for it, I doubt that there are any for WinXP, possibly for Win2K.

    Thanks,
    Christer
     
    Christer,
    #7
  9. 2009/04/12
    Christer

    Christer Geek Member Staff Thread Starter

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    Hi wildfire!

    I'll look into that and there is a floppy drive, connected to a PCMCIA-card. Maybe that's the one?

    I'm progressively convincing myself that I shouldn't be so cheap and instead go shopping for a USB > RS232 converter.

    Christer
     
    Christer,
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  10. 2009/04/12
    wildfire

    wildfire Getting Old

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    OK, you probably already know this but for others looking in...

    There's 3 drivers involved here.

    1) The PCMCIA interface drivers, from what you've posted I'm guessing this is fine on both systems.

    2) The RS232 PCMCIA Card drivers, ok on the 95 system. Missing/Unavailable on the XP box.

    3) The com port drivers, Installed by default by windows so No Additional Drivers Required.

    If you have an FCC number for the RS232 card I could go look for you but you've probably already searched the places I would.

    Like you I hate it when otherwise working hardware becomes obsolete but you may be right and USB->RS232 would give you less of a headache.
     
    wildfire,
    #9
  11. 2009/04/12
    Christer

    Christer Geek Member Staff Thread Starter

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    There are two numbers but probably not FCC numbers:

    SN:RS 1300243 on a sticker and 1100809 on a separate "tracking label ".

    I went google on them but no luck.

    Christer
     
    Christer,
    #10
  12. 2009/04/12
    wildfire

    wildfire Getting Old

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    Hi Christer,

    You could try here, there is a 2k and xp sub folder but obviously I can't test it so read the disclaimer at the bottom.

    Best of luck and let me know how you get on.

    Edit: Just read your initial post again.

    The original driver disk (image) can be found here but it's only for 95/98/NT4
     
    Last edited: 2009/04/12
    wildfire,
    #11
  13. 2009/04/12
    Christer

    Christer Geek Member Staff Thread Starter

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    Well, I tried to register at DriverGuide but I was rejected. Someone had already used the same Email addy ... :eek: ... and it was me on 16 March 2006 (me and my teflon coated, non-stick memory ... :( ... ).

    I downloaded the driver to my own computer, extracted it to a floppy which I put in the WinXP lappy. I inserted the PC-card and WinXP easily (with the aid of a few mouse clicks) found the driver on the floppy.

    It seems to work but I have not yet connected anything to it. It's going to be used to communicate with GPS loggers and if the real test fails, I'll let you know.

    Thanks a lot ... :) ... ,
    Christer
     
    Christer,
    #12
  14. 2009/04/12
    wildfire

    wildfire Getting Old

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    No problem, don't forget to let me know how the real tests go.
     
    wildfire,
    #13
  15. 2009/04/13
    Christer

    Christer Geek Member Staff Thread Starter

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    The two progams that I use are small, simple and basically DOS (fit on a floppy). They were written in the Win95/98 days when most computers had COM1 and COM2. In one of the programs (VPBIB), the user can select COM1 or COM2. In the other (VPLOG), the user can select COM1 or COM2, low or high speed. No other COM-ports are recognized.

    In VPBIB, the COM-port is opened by the program when the transfer is to take place.

    In VPLOG, the COM-port is opened by the program when it is started. If there is no COM1 (the default setting when run for the first time) available, it doesn't run.

    In device manager, when I checked the PC-card it showed up as COM6. Under "port settings" > "advanced tab" > COM1-5 and COM10-11 were reported as "in use" but I have not yet found out what is using them. I simply assigned COM1 to the PC-card and was warned that since it was alreay "in use ", the settings might be changed by the other (undefined) "user ".

    Anyway, the PC-card set as COM1 works well with both programs. The only snag is that VPLOG only runs with the COM-port set to low speed. (That can depend on the GPS-logger attached to it and not the COM-port itself.)

    I'll go back to DriverGuide and give some positive feedback on that driver.

    Thanks again,
    Christer
     
    Christer,
    #14
  16. 2009/04/13
    wildfire

    wildfire Getting Old

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    Given the mix of old and new hardware & software I'd say that's the best you could expect. Post that feedback though, there are a few mis-described drivers on there so any feedback (positive or negative) helps others.

    At least you've got it working.
     
    wildfire,
    #15

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