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487664
July 4th, 2015 18:00
PCI serial port driver download issues
Our Clackamas Oregon model RR club has two Dell Optiplex 755 laptops purchased used from a recycle store. The one that communicates with our layout NCE power module through the serial port has stopped communicating and Windows Vista device manager reports the PCI serial port driver is missing and also the PCI simple communications controller and PCI bus controller drivers. I have searched for hours on the Dell support download site for these drivers and cannot find any help. I even ran a Dell diagnostic package and it reported no problems. Any suggestions or how to find the proper drivers will be greatly appreciated.
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speedstep
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47K Posts
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July 5th, 2015 16:00
This is a common issue with INTEL AMT drivers which are not native to ANY version of windows.
The "PCI Serial Port Driver is not actually a Serial Port"
Its the Intel AMT HECI & AMT SOL/LMS Hardware.
The Current Driver for this works with Windows 7, Vista, XP, 32 and 64 bit.
One Size Fits all.
Operating Systems
Windows 7 32-bit
Windows 7 64-bit
Windows Vista 32-bit
Windows Vista 64-bit
Windows XP
Windows XP x64
Chipset
ftp.us.dell.com/.../R174616.exe
AMT-HECI
ftp.us.dell.com/.../Intel_AMT-HECI_A02_R255437.exe
AMT-SOL
ftp.us.dell.com/.../Intel_AMT-SOL--LMS_A02_R255438.exe
Hard Drive Installation (via WinZip) with Setup.exe File for Intel_AMT-HECI_A02_R255437.exe
Download
1.Click Download Now, to download the file.
2.When the File Download window appears, click Save (Windows XP
users will click Save) this program to disk and click OK. The Save In:
window appears.
3.From the Save In: field, click the down arrow then click to
select Desktop and click Save. The file will download to your desktop.
4.If the Download Complete window appears, click Close. The file
icon appears on your desktop.
Install
1.Double-click the new icon on the desktop labeled Intel_AMT-HECI_A02_R255437.exe.
2.The Self-Extracting window appears and prompts you to extract or
unzip to C:\DELL\DRIVERS\R255437. Write down this path so the executable (I.e.
Setup.exe) file can be found later.
3.The Self-Extractor window appears.
4.Click OK.
5.After completing the file extraction, if the Self-Extractor
window is still open, close it.
6.Click the Start button and then click Run.
7.Type C:\DELL\DRIVERS\R255437 in the Open textbox and then click OK.
8.Follow the on-screen installation instructions.
speedstep
9 Legend
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47K Posts
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July 30th, 2015 12:00
The AMT can be disabled in Bios.
w1toma
2 Posts
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July 6th, 2015 05:00
I have a related problem.
I have an OptiPlus 755 desktop which I bought refurbished. It has a new installation of Windows 7 Pro.
This machine has/had Intel AMT enabled. I have tried to remove any traces of it.
My problem is the serial port. Something takes over the serial port on start up and changes the baud rate to 1200 and some other parameters as well. RTS and DTR are set to on. These are different than what is set in Device Manager. My use needs RTS and DTR off in normal mode.
If I do a start up in safe mode this doesn't happen.
I suspected AMT was the culprit but I think that is removed. Could it be something related to Work Station?
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks
Tom
Capt.Brigg
5 Posts
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July 6th, 2015 11:00
So if I understand your answer the "PCI serial port driver" has nothing to do with the actual operation of the serial port on the machine and it's absence would not have caused the serial port to stop communication. It appears from the video that these missing drivers had something to do with an IT tech being able to take control of this machine and make changes in a large corporate setting such as Kaiser Permanente where I believe the machine originally came from. In that case should I somehow unload this PCI serial port ability? Does this involve a piece of hardware that was installed in the machine by the previous owners? Thanks
w1toma
2 Posts
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July 31st, 2015 05:00
I have done this. Thanks for the information. Also in the bios I selected just COM 1, not COM1 and COM 3. I think the problems coms from what was using COM 3, I think it was related to Intel AMT.
I added two serial ports and they act the same as the onboard one.
I even loaded driver software with the add on ports.
Something set them all to 1200 baud, 7 bits, and others, the offending one to me is DTS on. These are not the values set in the Device Manager. If I do a safe start in Windows this does not happen. I hope this narrows it down.
When I go to use the ports and my software takes over they work as needed but when the software shuts down it goes back to the 1200 baud.
speedstep
9 Legend
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47K Posts
1
July 31st, 2015 05:00
Drivers for the com ports are native to windows as far back as windows 2.0 and MSDOS.
This is the Dell forum not support for some un named software.
Software support is not provided on this forum. Especially when it does not come from dell.
Sounds like the software Came from XP or Earlier.
Make older programs run in this version of Windows
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-IN/windows7/Make-older-programs-run-in-this-version-of-Windows
The registry settings for a legacy COM port are under a corresponding legacy COM port subkey that is under the HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Serial\Parameters key.
These settings ARE NOT SUPPORTED in Windows 7,8,10
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/ff546509(v=vs.85).aspx
The following entry values are the same as described for a Plug and Play serial device:
ClockRate
PortIndex
Indexed
RxFIFO
TxFIFO
MaskInverted
DisablePort
ForceFifoEnable
The following additional entry values are used with legacy COM ports:
Specifies the untranslated base I/O address for the COM port control registers. Serial reads this value. The value cannot be zero. The default value of PortAddress is 0x00000000.
Specifies the untranslated interrupt vector, as appropriate for the bus type. Serial reads this value. The value cannot be zero. The default value of Interrupt is 0x00000000.
Specifies the name of the COM port. The name of a COM port is typically COM , where <n> is a COM port number that the installer obtains from the COM port database. However, a COM port name can be set to any non-NULL string. Serial uses the port name to create a symbolic link to the COM port that is visible in usermode. The default value of DosDevices is a NULL string.
Specifies the raw I/O address for the interrupt status register. Serial reads this value. The value is omitted if the port is a stand-alone port. The value cannot be zero if the port is on a multiport device. The default value of InterruptStatus is 0x00000000.
Specifies the system-wide bus number for the bus type. Serial reads this value. The default value of BusNumber is 0x00000000.
Specifies the bus type. Serial reads this value. The default value of BusType is determined by Serial during driver initialization.
Specifies the interrupt mode. Serial reads this value. The default value of InterruptMode is CM_RESOURCE_INTERRUPT_LATCHED.
Specifies a raw interrupt level value that is appropriate for the bus type. Serial reads this value. The default value of InterruptLevel is 0x00000000.
Specifies a Plug and Play device identifier for a Plug and Play device. Serial reads this value. The default value of PnPDeviceID is a NULL string.
Boolean flag that indicates whether Serial has previously reported the device to the Plug and Play manager. Serial reads and sets this value. If LegacyDiscovered is nonzero, Serial has previously reported the device and does not report the device again. Otherwise, Serial reports the device and sets the entry value to 0x00000001.
In Windows NT 4.0 and earlier, each Serial# subkey stores settings for individual serial ports. The settings in the Serial# subkeys take precedence over default settings for all serial ports in the Serial subkey. In Windows 2000, settings for individual ports are stored in device-specific subkeys of the ENum subkey.
If you have upgraded from Windows NT 4.0 and earlier, Serial# subkeys might remain in your registry, but they are not fully supported. When the system starts, it reads the entries in the Serial# subkey, copies them to the device-specific Enum subkey for the port, and then adds the LegacyDiscovered entry to indicate that the entries have been transferred. After that, it ignores the entries in the Serial# subkey.
Do not edit the Serial# subkeys in Parameters. To configure individual serial ports in Windows 2000, use Device Manager. Device Manager associates each port with the correct device-specific subkey in Enum and changes the settings accurately.