Board Shortcut / Arduino Serial Port not interfacing

Hello, im having problems with connecting with my Arduino UNO. I was working on a Arduino project last week and being the board transformer powered accidentally made a short in the bottom side of the board placing it into a metal surface. Before that i uploaded my program to the Arduino without problems. The board seems to work, green led lights on and the "L" orange Led blinks but Windows XP doesn't make communication. The strangest thing is that only appears COM1 in the "Serial Port" menu, and it doesn't changes while i plug in or off the board via USB. Is my board damaged or i have to reinstall port drivers? Im working on WinXp on a AMD Athlon Xp 2000+. Can anybody help me please?

Thank u very very much.

Naku

oh, the message that i get is "avrdude: stk500_getsync(): not in sync: resp=0x00
avrdude: stk500_disable(): protocol error, expect=0x14, resp=0x51"
i tried uploading a program with the reset pressed till "Binary sketch..." but not responding.

Sounds like you may have damaged the USB interface chip.

A simple test is to connect D0 & D1, then send the board a character via the serial port and see if it comes back.
If not the USB is not working. How are your surface mount soldering skills?

Thank u very much for answering CrossRoads. I connect the board but only COM1 appears, I don't really think about arduino been working there in any moment. Have to send the data via COM1 anyway?

COM port seems to vary. On my Vista laptop, Deumilanove's appear as COM3, while FTDI Basic for Promini's I think appeared as COM5.
Don't recall what Uno's appeared as.

ok, i don't know if I'm doing well. i opened arduino program and in menu "Tools->Serial Monitor" had written "5" and hit enter. nothing happens. am i doing it right? i connect and disconnect the board and the menu "Tools->Serial Port" menu doesn't vary.
So, what's next? I have a good solder but is not a soldering station. Had soldered some resistors and transistors in SMD but I'm not an expert.
Thank u very much CrossRoads, I'll keep on waiting for your reply.

Open "Device Manager" and read the properties for COM1. Post what it says here.

Thank you for answering James!

In the "General" Tab
Device Type: Port (COM & LPT)
Manufacturer: (Standard Port)
Location: PCI Bus

Device Status: This device is working properly. if you are having problems with this device, click Troubleshoot to start the troubleshooter.

So the PC side seems to be okay.

Have you tried this?

A simple test is to connect D0 & D1, then send the board a character via the serial port and see if it comes back.
If not the [arduino board's] USB is not working.

hello crossroads, im in the forum again, been busy last week, too much work. i tried to connect D0 & D1, opened arduino program and in menu "Tools->Serial Monitor" had written "5" and hit enter. nothing happens. am i doing it right? i connect and disconnect the board and the menu "Tools->Serial Port" menu doesn't vary. can i fix my arduino?

Without proper tools to remve & replace the USB interface chip, I woulld say no. Sorry.

where's that ic? i can try....

naku:
where's that ic? i can try....

The small square one with lots of pins, should be near the USB jack.

Yes, the little square one behind the USB connector.
Might be marked AT8MU2-something or other, like AT8MU2P-AU??