Precision Tower 3630 running Windows 10 64bit Builtin COM1 Serial port works but has overruns on input, some of the characters received are lost (115K baud). Device Manager lists COM1 under C240 LPC controller Driver listed as version 10.0.16299.15 from Microsoft, dated 2006 System claims the driver is up to date Is there a more recent driver, or something to be enabled in BIOS to get COM1 to work properly?
Those ports are not designed to run 115200 baud RS232. If you add RS422 conversions on both ends you might have better luck but serial ports on pc's are designed to run with analog modems 56K max.
Dell is not going to fix this for a legacy port.
higher speeds major limitation is the environment, in a noisy environment there will be more corrupt data limiting the speed. Another limitation is the length of the cable between the devices, you may need to add a RS422 repeater or some other device to strengthen the signal.
The Dell downloads show an Intel Serial I/O driver. Its not clear if this is the hardware device for the RS232C I/O or not, but if it is its a later driver than the default Windows driver. The 2006 date on the Microsoft driver is a generic date, there are several devices that have similar old dates. e.g. the Microsoft Firewire driver that I use on my recording studio system also has a 2006 date but its the "latest" driver.
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By the way, the "Workstation" section of the forum is for Precision hardware support.
Inspiron 16 5630 Laptop and WD22TB4 Docking Station
Self-built desktop for recording studio application
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I have exactly the same problem with my Dell Precision 3630 Tower serial port. I also run Windows 10 Enterprise 64bit (1809) Dell Support changed the mainboard but this does not help. It seems to be a driver problem.
I installed the actual "Intel-Serial-IO-Driver_RDY6W_WIN_30.100.2020.7_A05.EXE" driver. Nevertheless, the serial port shows driver version "21.06.2006, 10.0.17763.1" from Microsoft and not an Intel or Dell driver.
We bought an active "ProSupport Plus" with the workstation, but after changing the mainboard, the Dell Support blocks further attempts to fix this problem. This is not what I understand as professional support.
Remark: I use the same cable and serial devices at the Dell Workstation what I had used since some years with my old HP 440 Workstation without any problems.
The driver you posted is for specific intel chipsets not a generic serial driver.
Cannon Point-LP Serial IO SPI Controller
This package contains the Intel Serial IO driver and is supported on Alienware, Inspiron, Latitude, OptiPlex, Precision, Vostro, and XPS models that run the Windows 10 64-bit operating system.
> Those ports are not designed to run 115200 baud RS232.
Baloney. I had no problem running com ports at 115k 20+ years ago with a 386.
Overruns normally happen when some process disables interrupts too long, and it is almost always a software issue.
One standard way to remedy is to change the trigger levels for the receive and transmit buffers as per below image. (Win 7)
Another possible remedy would be to install a serial port card that has a deeper FIFO than on the onboard serial port [16550 (?) with 16 bytes] like the 16950.
Chipset: Oxford OxPCIe952.
Compliant with PCI Express Base Specification, Revision 1.1. Built-in 128-byte FIFO buffers. UART: 16950. Supports data transfer rate up to 230Kb/s.
115200 is possible but with zero errors is not especially in a noisy environment over long distances.
Intel AMT Serial-over-LAN (SOL) is something completely different.
This is also why I recommend RS422
RS422 interface is used to transmit data at higher speed and for larger distance compared to RS232C. This is possible due to differential mode of transmission. It uses twisted pair cable for transmission CAT5. Hence noise is reduced to great extent.
I do not use a long cable, I use a 2 meter (6.56 ft) cable, and as I wrote previously, exactly the same configuration run without problems for years with a HP 440 workstation serial port and Win7 Pro 64.
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Those ports are not designed to run 115200 baud RS232. If you add RS422 conversions on both ends you might have better luck but serial ports on pc's are designed to run with analog modems 56K max.
Dell is not going to fix this for a legacy port.
higher speeds major limitation is the environment, in a noisy environment there will be more corrupt data limiting the speed. Another limitation is the length of the cable between the devices, you may need to add a RS422 repeater or some other device to strengthen the signal.
https://www.amazon.com/Serial-Communication-Converter-Adapter-Mini-Size/dp/B0196AO1IG