72341.1707@CompuServe.COM (John Boyd) (03/03/91)
I am trying to help a friend configure the serial port on a new
serial/parallel/game clock card in a no-name XT clone purchased some
time ago, from a now-defunct local vendor. The serial port and the
parallel port on the card are the only ones in the machine. When I try
to fire up the comm program, the Data,DTR, and SD/RD lights stay on
constantly. Even when I exit the comm pkg, the lights stay on until I
disconnect the serial cable from the machine. For comparison, I've
been using my ATT6300 PC, and MY modem and cable on both machines. It
all *works* on my setup. The config's of the two machines are:
PC ATT
EGA (Vega Adap.) CGA (ATT Indiginious)
40m HD 30m HD
2-FDD 2-FDD
1 serial port 1 serial port
1 parallel port 1 parallel port
1 game port 1 game port
Logitech Bus Mouse
When I ran Norton Sysinfo against both machines, I discovered the
following:
PC ATT
IRQ0 F000:FEA5 (BIOS) F000:FEA5 (BIOS) Timer
IRQ1 F000:E987 (BIOS) F000:E987 (BIOS) Keyboard
IRQ2 F000:FF23 (BIOS) F000:FF23 (BIOS) Cascade
Side question: What does Cascade mean?
IRQ3 0A5B:1072 (DOS) F000:FF23 (BIOS) COM2
^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^
IRQ4 F000:FF23 (BIOS) F000:FF23 (BIOS) COM1
IRQ5 C800:02CE (BIOS) C800:02CE (BIOS) LPT2
IRQ6 F000:EF57 (BIOS) F000:EF57 (BIOS) FDD
IRQ7 0700:0800 (DOS) 0700:0800 (DOS) LPT1
What, if anything do these differences mean? Any ideas on what I can
change to get the thing to work? If an interrupt address has to be
changed, how do I do that?
The game card port and the clock functions on this card work OK, and I
already checked what little docs came with the PC for the video card,
(no help), the serial/parallel card (says it's supposed to be
'drop-in-and-go', the game card, the hard drive,etc, and nothing jumps
out at me as to what to check, change, etc. Any positive comments as
to what to do from here would be appreciated.
John Boyd