Serial port 'COM19' already in use

Forum 2005-2010 (read only) Software Troubleshooting
1

Hi all,

I'm very new to this and have bought a Duemilanove a few days back.

Followed the instruction on arduino site and managed to upload the blinking led sketch. It works and continue to work since; the blinking won't stop even if I press the reset button.

I tried to upload another example but this time round, I was served with "Serial port 'COM19' already in use. Try quiting any programs that may be using it". I closed off any running programs and tried again. No luck. Same message received.

I'm on Vista Home.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks.
Wongster

2

Anyone can help me with this? or point me to a simple to understand post/site? Very much appreciate if help can be rendered.

I'm sure no processes or programs are using com19 as I can see that it is not tagged with "in use". Tried other ports without avail. Tried doing the "press the reset button and upload" sequence. No go with that too.

the blinking program uploaded the first time works everytime I plug in the USB port.

Trying to update the driver resulted in the message saying that I've the updated driver.

3

Are you sure that COM19 is the right port to use?

4

HI Fjornir,

Thanks for replying. Appreciate it.

That's the port number show on control panel when I followed the instruction to set it up. Also, I successfully uploaded the 2 sketches following the tutorials (both are blinking LEDs sketches - the first 2 in the tutorial section).

I tried uninstalling both the USB driver and the com port and reinstall them again. Same problem occurred.

Regards
Wongster

5

Pull down Tools | Serial Port and try the other ports that're listed there.

6

The other listed one is Com4, which also didn't work.

7

Hi all,

I've printed the output to the black screen. Hope someone can help.

Regards,
Wongster

Stable Library

Native lib Version = RXTX-2.1-7
Java lib Version = RXTX-2.1-7
Binary sketch size: 2556 bytes (of a 14336 byte maximum)
Error 0x5 at /home/bob/foo/rxtx-devel/build/../src/termios.c(860): Access is den
ied.

processing.app.SerialException: Serial port 'COM5' already in use. Try quiting
any programs that may be using it.
at processing.app.Serial.(Serial.java:140)
at processing.app.Serial.(Serial.java:72)
at processing.app.Uploader.flushSerialBuffer(Uploader.java:66)
at processing.app.AvrdudeUploader.uploadViaBootloader(AvrdudeUploader.ja
va:73)
at processing.app.AvrdudeUploader.uploadUsingPreferences(AvrdudeUploader
.java:48)
at processing.app.Sketch.upload(Sketch.java:1632)
at processing.app.Sketch.exportApplet(Sketch.java:1701)
at processing.app.Editor$41.run(Editor.java:2004)
at java.awt.event.InvocationEvent.dispatch(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.EventQueue.dispatchEvent(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpOneEventForHierarchy(Unknown Source)

at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForHierarchy(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.run(Unknown Source)

8

Just to update on my effort in finding a solution. I did quite a fair bit of searching on the web. Landed on some sites advising to use FTClean. Did that and reinstall the drivers like the first time. Select the port and loaded the program. The same message on Serial port already in use appeared.

I'm really lost.

Please, if anyone could, help me on this. Getting desparate to get it back up.

Regards,
wongster :cry:

9

Why does your error message say you are using COM5?

10

Hi Digger450,

I don't exactly know what you mean by "using COM5" but when I click upload, it said COM5 already in use and to close off porgrams using it.

I checked in device manager -> Ports -> USB Serial Ports (COM5) -> Port Setting -> Advance. All ports that I tried are not in used.

Regards,
Wongster

11

Maybe you have another program running that is blocking the port.

Check the link for more suggestions.

http://arduino.cc/en/Guide/Troubleshooting

12

Thanks for the suggestion. I went thru the troubleshooting guide the first time I encountered this problem.

Is there a way/program that I can find out what programs are using what port? I'm on Vista.

Regards,
Wongster

13

DO NOT KNOW IF THIS WORKS ON VISTA

From run or cmd.exe

devmgmt.msc

This is how I do it on XP.

I think you could just search for Device Manager

14

Device manager reported that those ports I tried are not in use. If they are, only the words "In Use" will show, but not the programs/devices that use them.

I'm thinking of just chewing up the board.... bought 2 steppers and some chips to play with the arduino.

15

Hi guys,

I think the board is afraid to be chewed. When I was about to take my first bite, it decided to allow me to do the upload :wink:

Joke aside. I'm not sure how I did it. I plugged the board to my notebook, fire up device manager for the nth time, disabled the serial port for the board. Reboot (with the board plugged in), enable the serial port, start the program and clicked upload. This time, it works!!!

Anyone know the reason why it works after the above steps were done?

Regards,
Wongster

16

Hi all,

Would appreciate if anyone can share how to solve the problem of com port in use when trying to upload sketches. I realized that I can only upload new sketches to the board by rebooting with the serial port disabled and enabling it after the system restarted. All this is done with the board plugged in (to force the assignment of port to the board? doesn't seem right either...). It didn't work when I reboot without disabling the serial port.

Strange strange strange.

Anyone has any solution or has encountered this problem?

Regards,
Wongster

17

Your workaround continues to point to other software on your computer that is blocking the serial port. It could be anti-virus, blue-tooth, or a range of other programs that are causing the conflict.

18

Anyway to find out which program or device is also using the same com port? Can't find the information in Device Manager.

The strange thing is, regardless of what com port I changed to, the same problem occurred, giving me the impression that Arduino is preventing itself from using the com port (different threads of same program using the com port and blocking the other?).

I tried disabling norton AV, bluetooth, and other programs visible to me without avail.

Any suggestion to test?

19

How about using a different OS ?
Windoze for gaming, something useful for the rest.

Can't comment on Vista. It's on my laptop, but only for purpose of reselling it sometime. Never used it, too many colors, ugly explorer.

I know this doesn't help much, but I've long given up thinking about the other OS, expect for running games. XP had become a decent flavour of windoze with SP2, Vista doesn't really exist, the W7 may be better, maybe not.

20

I've posted it in another thread but realized that the problem I encountered is different from the thread starter. Pardon me transferring it here. Hope someone can help.

I realised one thing while trying to figure out the port already in use problem. After getting it to work following the cumbersome way of disabling, rebooting and enabling the serial port, I realised that it may be the ide refusing to release it hold on the port (pardon me if I am technically incorrect with terms and jargons here).
When I quite the IDE and started it again, the uploading works ok. Once I plugged out the USB cable and plug it back again, the problem starts. This occurs regardless of whether I unplug the usb cable with IDE running or after I shutdown the IDE.
So it seems to me that the device still hanging on to the serial port is the IDE than any other program.
Anyone has any solution or things I can try with?