Finding the IRQ I need to find out what IRQ, I/O address, data bits, Baud rate, and DMA the Serial COM ports currently have for a DOS 6.2 based computer. I know already that the previous owner changed a few things such that a modem and some add-on controller board would work. There are jumpers on the controller board, but they do not tell of settings after moving them around. My CAD software and a CNC controller needs to know exact settings for items to work. And, this is not a Windows based system. Is there a command such that I can tell of the current settings? Wm.

Some info should be shown at the POST screen when you start the computer - otherwise you could use one of the many system info programs - even Micro$oft's MSD (which ships with DOS6xx) can provide basic specs. Syschk is good. Any of the old Norton Utilities or PCTools will provide quite a bit too. Don't think anything is going to give you BAUD rate short of a modem test program. Confusion reigns

The COM ports are very flexible, such that the user sets up the speed, data bits etc. Check in AUTOEXEC.BAT and see if there are any MODE statements that relate to the com port concerned. Enter dos command HELP MODE, and continue on to configuring serial ports, where much is explained. The settings in autoexec, can be overwridden either by the communications program in use, or by use of the mode command. Good luck - Keep us posted.

Mike> Cannot get the analysing software to load. I did however keep altering the AUTOEXEC.BAT file until the CNC software took off and worked. I am working with DOS 6.2 instead of the DOS 3.3-5 as noted by the maufacturer. Old trick was to set flow control to HARDWARE. I could get it to work for maybe five minutes then it would quit or get confused. Problem with the machine world is that it costs substantially more to upgrade the tooling than to buy another computer. Thus we have to stay in a world of yesterday. Original set up for machine seemed to be looking for anything on COM 1, and that was being used by the mouse on newer computer. Wm.

G'day, Have you tried getting into the BIOS and changing the settings there? Would I be correct in assuming that you want to free up COM1 for the CNC machine? You would need to give some more info on the PC that you are using ie are the com ports on the motherboard or as IO cards? (ie hardware configurable). You should be able to set the mouse up on COM2 thru the CMOS/BIOS settings. regards, Elric

Wm - you do not need to alter autoexec each time you want to test, as the mode command can be used 'in flight'. Check out the various settings for its retry option. I would try to ascertain exactly what settings were used on the original pc/machine tool. Possibly on the machine tool these could be varied to suit the control pc to which it was attached. If the device is old, you may find only 7 data bits were used. It may be possible to download a software line scanner, that lets you see what is happening on the port concerned. Have you tried the dos msd commmand? Good luck - Keep us posted.