Com port error

Development Tools IDE 1.x
1

Hi thanks I know this will be basic but its the first time I've tried to use a Arduino even though I've owned it for 3 years!

I connected everything up, used the latest IDE which I downloaded, I got a sketch into the IDE then nothing.

Hitting the upload button brought up the green progress bar at the bottom of the page but just before completion I got this error....

Arduino: 1.6.10 (Windows 8.1), Board: "Arduino/Genuino Uno"

avrdude: ser_open(): can't open device "\.\COM1": The system cannot find the file specified.

Problem uploading to board. See http://www.arduino.cc/en/Guide/Troubleshooting#upload for suggestions.

I followed the troubleshooting page but it hasn't resolved it for me. From what I see it's looking for COM1, in the list under tools>ports, its listed as COM3

Can anyone point me to an answer please, for once I sit down and decide to learn something new and come unstuck at the first hurdle.

2

Brian60:
From what I see it's looking for COM1, in the list under tools>ports, its listed as COM3

If it's on COM3 then you need to select Tools > Port > COM3.

3

Sorry I probably didn't make that clear. in Tools>Port> it shows connection as COM3. But the error in the program is showing that it can't find COM1, there is no COM1 listed under tools, just the COM3.

If its looking for COM1 and its not in the list, how do I add it?

4

Wow, that's very strange. I haven't seen that one before. Arduino IDE 1.6.10 just came out and does have a couple of bugs. You might try installing Arduino IDE 1.6.9 from this page: https://www.arduino.cc/en/Main/OldSoftwareReleases. Maybe that would solve your issue.

5

Thanks, I'll give that a try. I couldn't answer earlier, the forum has a time out for new users

6

(deleted)

7

I've given it another go, went into device manager and physically changed com3 to com1 as default for the Arduino. COM1 now shows under tools>ports> I'll try selecting it and see what happens before I download the earlier version of the IDE.

8

Well everything is selected as should be, everything is showing as normal I can even check the serial number etc using the option under Tools.

But the program still won't upload, just returns this error message each time I try..

avrdude: ser_open(): can't open device "\.\COM1": The system cannot find the file specified.

I'll now try to revert back to an earlier version of the IDE as previously suggested, but like Arnie --'I'll be back!'

9

Well I've tried all suggestion so far but still end up wit the error previously mentioned. I'm going to try a sketch that is in the arduino list rather than the one that goes with my sensors to see if that works.

But I'm ready to give it a rest today, so hopefully I might get a few more suggestions to try later on.

10

I sorted this problem last night.

I still don't know what used it, but the simple expedient of pressing the reset button on the board was the cure.

After pressing the reset, my program loaded no problem, so another question - is it necessary to use the reset button before any new program is uploaded, or should it just overwrite any existing program on the arduino board?

11

The Arduino does need to reset at the start of the upload process but this should happen automatically. Very old Arduino boards didn't have the auto-reset feature and so they did need to be manually reset but that was a while back. I have ones older than 3 years that have the auto-reset feature.