Com Port 1 problem

For some reason all of a sudden I can't connect to my HF Ham radio through my com1 connection. Everything was working just great and for what the reason I am being denied access to the radio. I download Portmon and connect to my local computer, but when I check the ports that are there I see com1 but I can't check it to be monitored. The problem appears to be that some application may be holding my com1 port open all the time. My question is how can I find or see what is using com1 port. I have already done all the basic things like:

change the serial cable
reinstall the software that I am using
reboot the computer
check to see if the device is work properly
Used Portmon to monitored my ports, but it can't monitored com1port.

Thanks,
Bob

 

First check for problems in Device Manager. Expand Ports (Com & LPT) then right click on Communications Port (COM1) and select properties. See if the device is working correctly.

You can also click on Start and select Run. Type in msinfo32 and press the Enter key. Expand Hardware Resources then click on I/O. See if the status for your COM ports is listed as OK. You can click on IRQs to see if something else is sharing the same IRQ as the COM port.

I would also check the Bios to make sure the setting hasn't changed to enable the COM ports. If it did your Cmos battery may be weak or dying. If so replace the battery and reset the Bios.

 

Thanks Whiskeyman for the quick reply. Hardware wise the COM1 checks out, but it seems that something is blocking assess to the port. I thought I could use Portmon, but if the port is already in use you can't monitor it. I know this because I have a USB/Serial port that was in use when I started Portmon and it couldn't be found to monitor just like COM1 is doing, but when I stop the software use this port I could then start monitoring the port after starting it up. My problem is that I can't find what is holding COM1 open. Is there no way to see the port activity.

Thanks,
Bob