[Elecraft] COM port not working

[Richard Ferch]

Gary,

If I understood your post correctly, you are using a USB-to-serial 
adapter to connect to the K3's RS-232 port. If this is correct, is there 
any chance that there was something such as a Windows Update last night 
that might have done something to the driver for the adapter? 
Alternatively, is there any chance there was something like a nearby 
lightning strike that might have caused damage to the hardware? Has 
something else changed?

You might try the following diagnostic procedure:

1. Disconnect the USB-to-serial adapter from the computer.

2. Open Device Manager (from the Windows Control Panel) and expand the 
Ports (COM & LPT) section.

3. Plug the USB-to-serial adapter back into the computer. After a short 
delay, you should see a new port appear in the list in Device Manager. 
If nothing changes in the list, the main possibilities appear to be: the 
USB input is no longer working; the adapter hardware has failed; or 
there is something wrong with the driver for the adapter.

4. If the adapter shows up in Device Manager, take note of the COM port 
number that Windows has just assigned to it. If the new COM port does 
not show up in the list in the K3 Utility, that suggests something wrong 
with the driver that is preventing software such as the K3 Utility from 
detecting the port.

5. If the K3 Utility can find that COM port and does not indicate that 
some other program is using it, but still does not detect the K3 on it, 
check that the cable is fully seated in the K3's RS-232 jack and turn 
the K3 off and back on. If the K3 Utility still cannot detect the K3 
after this, it seems likely that there is either a hardware problem in 
the K3 or a software problem in the USB device driver that is allowing 
the K3 Utility to detect the presence of the COM port but preventing 
data from being communicated correctly.

73,
Rich VE3KI





KA1J wrote:

> I just went to run my K3 and discovered it wasn't communicating with
> the logging program. I shut off the logging program and started the
> K3 Utility and refreshing the port list only gives me ports 1 & 3.
> Neither of these ports are communicating with the K3. I've restarted
> the computer several times and changed USB ports on the computer with
> no change. It was working fine when I turned it off yesterday, any
> suggestions?