Avrdude: ser_open(): can't open device "\\.\COM12":

Using Arduino Avrdude, stk500, Bootloader issues
1

howdy kids-

anyone running into the following error?

"avrdude: ser_open(): can't open device "\.\COM12": The system cannot find the file specified."

this error is fairly new to me. for a few days i could power cycle and it would move past this. now i cannot use any of my micro controllers with the arduino ide. it doesn't matter what i set the port to through device manager and that is the full depth of my computer knowledge, man. i am tapped out.

i have looked through similar posts but have not seen a solid answer, so please bear with the repeat post.

i would appreciate any help!

2

See that a dozen times a day both on the forum, and on my Mac. Make sure ALL copies of the IDE are shut down, and if you have additional serial monitors (3rd party) also shut them down. These boards can be finicky at times, just persevere.
I almost forgot, device manager I the buggiest part of windows, so .......

3

Hi @krimmought.

I don't have a lot of experience with changing the ports in Device Manager, but I seem to remember that I encountered some strange problems uploading to a board when I did that years ago, and the problems were only resolved after I restarted the computer. Please restart your computer and then try uploading to the board again. Hopefully the error will no longer occur after that.

If it still occurs, let us know and we'll investigate further.

Please add a reply here on this forum thread to tell us which Arduino board you are using.

Please be as specific as possible as some Arduino boards with similar names have significant differences and the forum helpers can only provide effective assistance if we are aware of which one is being used.

If you aren't sure how to describe which board you are using, you can provide the link to the online product listing you bought the board from and we'll proceed based on the information found there.