Im sorry if this is addressed elsewhere. I did a search and didnt have any luck. I use Parallels with Windows XP to transfer programming data to a radio scanner. When I click Write to scanner I get a Windows dialog box that says: Error : Cannot open Com 3 port. Port may be used for other software. I would get the same dialog box once in a while when using Parallels 3, but the solution was to unplug the USB cable from the computer and plug it back in while Windows was running. With the USB cable reattached, Windows would make a ding dong sound showing that the USB was connected and then I could write to the radio. With Parallels 4, I get the same "cannot open Com 3" dialog box every time. When I unplug the cable and plug it back in, I get a Parallels dialog box asking me which machine I want to assign it to. I assign it to the Windows machine, but regardless of which machine I assign it to, I cannot get past the Cannot open Com 3 port error message in Parallels 4. What I know about Windows can be written in Helvetica 12 on the head of a pin so i"m really confused. Can someone offer a solution, or as I discovered with the previous version, a work around?
There were some reports that USB Serials works ok in the PD40. May be settings of the Radio Scaner is not correct? While USB device is connected to the VM, please right-click "My Computer"->Manage->Device Manager->"Ports (COM & LPT), unfold it and check the name of the Com-ports. Is there COM3 present?
Hi, woodyrr. Please, next time you unplug-plug your usb device mark checkbox in dialogbox and connect device to virtual machine. This checkbox will create "link" between selected virtual machine and your usb device and next time your unplag-plag device it will automatically connected to virtual machine without asking. This can decide problem.
Issue Resolved Thank both of you for your responses. When I started Parallels 4 this morning, I was notified that an update was available. The first thing that I did was download and apply the update. The second thing that I did was to create a permanent link between the radio and the VM as Alexander Haltman suggested. After those actions, I still got the error message. The situation has been resolved, however, although I don’t know exactly how. I went to the device manager as Eric suggested and found that, for whatever reason, the Prolific serial port - whatever - now wants to use com 4 instead of com 3 – I can’t explain or understand it, but that’s what it says-. I opened the settings pane for the scanner software and found that it had switched itself to com 4. I saved and confirmed the changes and have been able to write successfully to both different scanner models. If I get the error next time, I’ll know to make sure that the scanner software is set to use com 4. Thank you for your assistance.
All serial ports unavailable Just upgraded to 4 and from the get go, during startup i get messages about all my serial ports saying "Disconnnected - in use or you do not have permission. Tried my USB GPS adaptor without success, but that may be due to the driver, which as been updated. Now I am awaiting a new one, but in the meantime is there something I need to do to have windows recognize ANY serial port? Do I need to define the ports themselves?
I suppose you need to activate emulation of serial port inside of VM: click to "configure" on PD tool bar and click "+" to add port (for "+" to be active you need you VM stopped) > pick serial port and and add it. After this Windows should recognize serial port.
Been there, done that When I start Parallels, and look at the configuration, it shows all 4 serial ports as enabled. But when I start Windows XP, I still get the message that the file is unavailable or the port is in use and will be disconnected. Thanks, BTW, for the prompt reply to my post!
