Topic: "Could Not Open Communication Port" At Startup (up to 6-8 times)

[MonsonWx]

Hi everyone. I've been using VWS for about 6 years now with my VP (1). For maybe a year (or two) I've been having this extremely irritating problem. When I start my computer, VWS is set to open at startup. Most of the time (but not every time), VWS loads at startup and I get "COULD NOT OPEN COMMUNICATION PORT." I close VWS, reopen, same error, close, reopen, same error, and so on. Ususally it takes maybe 4-8 closing and reopening to get it to load up. Honestly, I've tried just about everything. I've switched to COM 2 from 1, I've tried to change COM settings in VWS. I just downloaded 14.01p32, but I've had this error since probably 13.xx versions. Has anyone had this issue before? Have you found any fixes? As you can imagine, this close/open sequence is extremely irritating at 7 in the morning.

Thanks!
Chris

[DaculaWeather]

I have that problem using StartWatch so the cause might be different, but yes, very irritating and I haven't figured that out either.

[Impala88]

I have the same problem crop up from time to time and, yes, it is extremely annoying!  There was a thread in the old Ambient forum about this problem.  The quick fix is to close VWS.  Open Control Panel/System.  Then click on the Hardware tab.  Click on Device Manager.  Click the "+" on Ports.  Right click on Communications Port (COM1) (or whichever COM port you may have VWS set up on).  Click on Disable.  Click on Yes when it says "are you sure?...).  Right click on Communications Port (COM1) again.  Then click Enable.  Close the Device Manager and click on OK in the System Properties window.  Restart VWS.  Everything should load correctly after that.

There is a complete workaround for this problem in the device settings and if anyone would be so kind to post it, we all would be very grateful!