virtual box serial port com 1

[jimcav]

i have a dell laptop with a real com port host OS is windows 10. Running VB 6.1.42 I cannot get the serial port to configure in VB.

Please Help
jim cav

 

[parky]

From what I gather, from win 10 the way the serial port driver has changed, that is why USB to 232 converters had to upgrade the drivers, so I suspect that a real serial port will need a newer driver as it may not be supported in win10.
perhaps dell have some updated drivers if they still fit serial ports, is this a new laptop ? if it is not & dell do not supply a driver then it's probably a no & you will have to use a USB to serial. I have a dell with legacy ports, however, that is running on win 7 so does support the old 232 ports.
Actually, I have just googled it & maybe this link will help, like Disabling UAC, having the right runtime libs etc.

https://superuser.com/questions/1788915/windows-10-rs232-serial-communications

 

[drbitboy]

what have you tried?


is it a built-in serial port of the laptop, or is it a USB-serial dongle device?

 

[jimcav]

It is a built in serial port

 

[parky]

DR it's a real port, dell will custom build laptops to support many types of hardware but I doubt that serial would be one of them now but they did a few years ago, I still have my Dual core dell with real serial port & pcmcia slot.
Run it on win 7 for legacy software.
That's why I asked if it was new.

 

[drbitboy]

It is a built in serial port

What have you tried? Have you tried the Serial Port window under VM settings?


What operating system is running on the guest VM?

 

[jimcav]

When I am in device manager it appears as a real com port

 

[parky]

If in your hardware it says it's working then it could be user access control so disable it, perhaps the driver will not work with win10, perhaps try a simple coms program to another PC to check if it can then send/recieve information, if so then it must be the libraries I would think in VB. what version of VB are you using.

 

[Steve Bailey]

I've seen the host assign a COM number to the physical serial port and the VM assign a different COM number to it. Double check that.

 

[George Graziano]

Does it have to be disabled on the host first?

 

[drbitboy]

It may be that this is an incompatibility issue with the built-in Dell COM port and VirtualBox (that's what I got from the link @parky posted).

If so, then you could spend a long time shaving that yak, trying to sort it out.


A simpler solution might be to buy, beg, borrrow or steal a USB-serial dongle, and configure the VirtualBox to "own" that USB device, so the Host Dell Windows 10 OS will not even see the USB device when the VM is running. Then the Guest VM will be able to use the USB device as if it was directly connected to the VM, and the VM would then configure the USB serial device for its own use.


Not an ideal solution, but I suspect OP primarily wants a working COM port, and knowing how to make VirtualBox work with this Dell built-in COM port is irrelevant once they have a COM port that works.

I had a similar situation with a built-in network adapter on a laptop that would not work for me in a VirtualBox VM; I obtained a USB-ethernet dongle and assigned it to the VM; problem solved.