eightbit Posted February 11, 2020 Share Posted February 11, 2020 About a year ago I built a new PC for my daughter with a budget Gigabyte board (socket 1150) and she recently received a laptop and gave the build back to me. I figured I would use it simply as a spare PC and while cleaning it I noticed a COM header on the board. I did not realize that was there! So, I purchased a cheap ($5) COM port header plate on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001EHFV02/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 I figured I would try the APE software I had registered 16 years ago with this and an old Atarimax SIO2PC serial adapter. And what do you know, it works perfectly. I am actually really surprised to see something like this on a new motherboard. I had so many issues over 6 years ago trying to obtain serial port cards with true 16550 UART specifications to get this old SIO device to play nicely with that computer back then...and that was an older Dell machine with no COM ports. Maybe RS-232 is making a come back 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillC Posted February 11, 2020 Share Posted February 11, 2020 2 hours ago, eightbit said: Maybe RS-232 is making a come back Many modern motherboards still have a COM port header, at least many from ASUS do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TGB1718 Posted February 11, 2020 Share Posted February 11, 2020 Many support engineers in IT still use it every day to connect to all sorts of devices to set them up before they connect to a network using applications like Putty or telnet. In the absence of a USB to Serial adaptor, having a 'real' RS232 available is a bonus. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eightbit Posted February 11, 2020 Author Share Posted February 11, 2020 I agree. But I recall a time around 2014 where I could not find a board that had COM ports at all. I had to first resort to a USB to serial adapter (which did not work with everything and kept changing COM ports to invalid ports like "COM5"), then had to try multiple serial port cards before I found what I needed was a card with a true UART. Then I was fine...until Windows 8 came along and my COM port card became useless with that OS due to lack of drivers. Fast forward six years later and they are adding COM port headers to modern boards....lol! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irgendwer Posted February 11, 2020 Share Posted February 11, 2020 (edited) If you are looking for a current "notebook" with COM port: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07SWVZ9MB/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_hOVqEbB7QP0C4 Edited February 11, 2020 by Irgendwer 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillC Posted February 12, 2020 Share Posted February 12, 2020 12 hours ago, eightbit said: I agree. But I recall a time around 2014 where I could not find a board that had COM ports at all. I have an ASUS M5A97 from around 2011 that has a COM port header, and the M5A97 R2 released in 2013 does as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TGB1718 Posted February 12, 2020 Share Posted February 12, 2020 I have a few old laptops I keep just for the old RS232 ports, Win XP and MSDOS (for use with SIO2PC) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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