Serial Port Menu Grayed Out

Forum 2005-2010 (read only) Hardware Troubleshooting
1

Hello,

I am unable to select a serial port in the Arduino software therefore I cannot upload any programs. My computer properly detects the arduino and I have the correct drivers installed (FTDI 2.8.2.0). I am running Win7 x64. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks!

2

What serial port does the computer assign to the Arduino?

I think I had to set it manually. Also it could have assigned a number too high for the IDE. It either stops at COM4: or COM8: I can't remember.

Open up device manager and have a look.

3

I actually had a hard time figuring that out. Where exactly do you find that info in device manager? The only thing I see resembling an assignment is under "Hardware Ids"

mine says...

FTDIBUS\COMPORT&VID_0403&PID_6001

Thanks for the help!

4

On Win7 64-bit:

  • click Start
  • click Control Panel
  • click Hardware and Sound
  • click Device Manager
  • click Ports (COM & LPT)
  • double-click on USB Serial Port (COMx)
  • click on Port Settings
  • click on Advanced
  • select desired COM Port Number
5

It shouldn't matter what COM port your board is assigned, though, the Arduino software can handle arbitrarily high numbers. But you should make sure it's in the device manager. You could try manually settting the serial.port value in your preferences.txt file (whose location you can find in the preferences dialog of the Arduino software). Just be sure to edit the file when the Arduino software is not running. Then relaunch Arduino and try uploading again.

6

@Tim Williams
I do not have anything that says "Port Settings." I really do not see any sign that a port was assigned to it whatsoever.

@mellis
Are you talking about the preferences.txt file within the /lib/ dir? I change the port assignment at the bottom of the file but it doesn't seem to do anything. When I try and upload to the board it still says "Serial port 'COM1' not found... etc" no matter which port I list...

7

I do not have anything that says "Port Settings." I really do not see any sign that a port was assigned to it whatsoever.

That would be a problem.

Did something called USB serial port or Arduino Uno show up in device manager? If so, right click on it and 'update driver,' tell the computer you want to browse for the driver then navigate to the drivers folder in your Arduino directory.

see http://arduino.cc/en/Guide/Windows#toc4

8

I am having the same problem with my Mega 2560 on Win 7. Will not install driver software.

Also When Serial port section is greyed out. Plus the 2560 does not show up in the serial port section of the device manager.

Any ideas?

9

I'm having this exact same problem. Perhaps certain versions of Windows 7 don't let you view ports? Anybody ever got the board to work in this case?

10

Everything works just fine on XP box. I found out that if your box has a built in serial port it will work fine as the option to change ports is available in the device manager, but if your box does not have a built5 in serial port that option is not available.

I am currently searching for a workable solution.

11

Okay, don't ask how I got this to work. But, I reinstalled the driver, and now it works. So, between Windows and the driver software, something didn't go through the first time. Go figure.