I have no COM port on my laptop... so I got a USB to COM adaptor. Windows sets it up as COM4, but MegaTune doesn't see it. Turns out MegaTune accesses the COM ports directly and not via Windows... therefor it cannot see an emulated COM port.

So... is there ANY workaround for this??

 

I, personally, have had really bad luck with these USB-serial adapters. At work, nearly all of our test equipment runs via RS-232 or RS-485 (the serial 9 pin). I gave up on these stupid things and got a PCMCIA to dual serial. Once I got it working, I've never had a problem. Though it was a bit of a pain to install. Socket Communications: Serial I/O
HTHs.

 

So are PCMCIA serial cards hardware and not software emulated COM ports? If so, I'll definately go that route!

 

You do need drivers for it like any other device and no, it's not emulated. It's detected as a serial device (as opposed to a USB-Serial converter). Just so you know, when you install the drivers, be sure to reboot after each step.

 

Ok good. Now... I see the ones on the link you posted are like $230... but I can find PCMCIA serial cards on ebay for $25 shipped... I wonder what the differences are??

 

Well, I can't tell you the differences but here's a link for you: RS232-PCMCIA, Serial Rs232 Pcmcia Card, High Speed Cardbus Pcmcia, Cardbus Pc Card and at least with them, you have somebody to call and have some sort of return policy. Don't know how eBay would handle something like that. The one I use was ordered under a work account. I'm looking for a ThinkPad T30, personally. It's one of the last durable laptops I know that came with legacy ports. Anyway, good luck.

 

Ok I ordered one. I'll let you know how it works out!

 

I've had fine luck using a USB-Serial adapter. I've used 2 IOGear USB/Serial adapter and both have worked well--even in emulation using VirtualPC on a G4 laptop. I bought the first one at Best Buy IIRC, the second at Wal-Mart.


Install your drivers for the adapter, fire up megatune, and set the com port to 4 in the Communications->Settings dialog, and get tuning. There's a thread in one of the forums at msefi.com that has a list of successfully used adapters. Might be the MegaTune forum actually.