Exit status 1Exit Status 1 on Nano and most recent ide

Copyright (c) 2000-2005 Brian Dean, http://www.bdmicro.com/
Copyright (c) 2007-2014 Joerg Wunsch

     System wide configuration file is "C:\Users\jkeen\AppData\Local\Arduino15\packages\arduino\tools\avrdude\6.3.0-arduino17/etc/avrdude.conf"

     Using Port                    : COM4
     Using Programmer              : arduino
     Overriding Baud Rate          : 115200

avrdude: ser_open(): can't set com-state for "\.\COM4"

avrdude done. Thank you.

Failed uploading: uploading error: exit status 1

So I'm on a brand new laptop. Trying to connect a nano I have already downloaded ch340. I keep getting this message what do I do?

In Windows 11 ?

yes

In the Arduino IDE, you should see the COM port in the "tools" menu.
You can try another USB cable, or select the old bootloader in the "Tools / Processor" menu. Or try another USB port or try another computer.

I moved your topic to an appropriate forum category @pacific10.

In the future, please take some time to pick the forum category that best suits the subject of your topic. There is an "About the _____ category" topic at the top of each category that explains its purpose.

This is an important part of responsible forum usage, as explained in the "How to get the best out of this forum" guide. The guide contains a lot of other useful information. Please read it.

Thanks in advance for your cooperation.

Hi @pacific10. This "can't set com-state for ..." error occurs when uploading to the boards that use specific batches of the WCH CH340 USB chip. The problem only occurs when using the latest version of the CH340 driver.

The affected users have reported that doing a "roll back" to an older version of the driver was an effective workaround. You can give that a try.

I'll provide instructions you can follow to do that:

  1. Click the following link to download the previous version of the driver from the chip manufacturer's website:
    https://www.wch-ic.com/downloads/file/65.html?time=2023-03-16%2022:57:59
  2. Wait for the download to finish.
  3. Run the downloaded CH341SER.EXE file.
  4. A "User Account Control" dialog may now appear asking "Do you want to allow this app to make changes to your device?". Click the "Yes" button.
  5. A "DriverSetup(X64)" dialog will open. Click the "INSTALL" button in the dialog.
  6. Wait for the driver installation to finish, as indicated by the appearance of a "Driver install success!" dialog.
  7. Click the "OK" button in the "Driver install success!" dialog.
    The dialog will close.
  8. Click the X icon at the top right of the "DriverSetup(X64)" dialog
    The dialog will close.
  9. Close Arduino IDE if it is running.
  10. Connect the Arduino board to your computer with a USB cable.
  11. Open the Windows Device Manager.
  12. Select View > Devices by type from the Device Manager menus.
  13. Open the "View" menu.
  14. If there is a to the left of the "Show hidden devices" menu item, click on "Show hidden devices" to disable it.
  15. Open the "Ports (COM & LPT)" section of the Device Manager tree.
  16. You should see a port identified as "USB-SERIAL CH340 (COMn)" under the "Ports (COM & LPT)" section (where "COMn" is some serial port e.g., COM4). Double click on that item.
    The "USB-SERIAL CH340 (COMn) Properties" dialog will open.
  17. Select the "Driver" tab of the "USB-SERIAL CH340 (COMn) Properties" dialog.
  18. You will see a "Roll Back Driver" button in the dialog. If it is not clickable, perform the following instructions:
    1. Click the "Update driver" button.
      An "Update Drivers Device - USB-SERIAL CH340 (COMn)" dialog will open.
    2. Click on "Search automatically for drivers" in the "Update Drivers Device - USB-SERIAL CH340 (COMn)" dialog.
    3. You should now see the driver installation wizard update the driver. Wait for the update to finish, as indicated by the message "Windows has successfully updated your drivers" in the dialog.
      :exclamation: It is possible you will instead see the message "The best drivers are already installed". If so, please stop following the instructions here and reply on the forum thread to let me know. I'll provide alternative instructions you can follow.
    4. Click the "Close" button in the "Update Drivers Device - USB-SERIAL CH340 (COMn)" dialog.
      The dialog will close.
  19. Click the "Roll Back Driver" button in the "USB-SERIAL CH340 (COMn) Properties" dialog.
    The "Driver Package rollback" dialog will open.
  20. Click the radio button next to "My apps don't work with this driver" in the "Driver Package rollback" dialog .
  21. Click the "Yes" button.
    The "Driver Package rollback" dialog will close.
  22. Click the "Close" button in the "USB-SERIAL CH340 (COMn) Properties" dialog.

Now start Arduino IDE again and repeat whatever you were doing before when you encountered that error before. Hopefully this time you will not encounter that "can't set com-state" error during the sketch upload.

1 Like

Im stuck at "Best drivers are already installed"

I have found that when the driver installation gets into this state, it can be solved by uninstalling and then reinstalling the drivers. After that, the "roll back" option should be enabled.

I'll provide instructions you can follow to do that:

  1. Close Arduino IDE if it is running.
  2. Connect the Arduino board to your computer with a USB cable.
  3. Open the Windows Device Manager.
  4. Select View > Devices by type from the Device Manager menus.
  5. Open the "View" menu.
  6. If there is a to the left of the "Show hidden devices" menu item, click on "Show hidden devices" to disable it.
  7. Open the "Ports (COM & LPT)" section of the Device Manager tree.
  8. You should see a port identified as "USB-SERIAL CH340 (COMn)" under the "Ports (COM & LPT)" section (where "COMn" is some serial port e.g., COM4). Double click on that item.
    The "USB-SERIAL CH340 (COMn) Properties" dialog will open.
  9. Select the "Driver" tab of the "USB-SERIAL CH340 (COMn) Properties" dialog.
  10. Click the "Uninstall Device" button.
    The "Uninstall Device" dialog will open.
  11. Check the box next to "☐ Attempt to remove the driver for this device.".
  12. Click the "Uninstall" button.
    The "Uninstall Device" and "USB-SERIAL CH340 (COMn) Properties" dialogs will close.
  13. Disconnect the USB cable of the Arduino board from your computer.
  14. Reconnect the USB cable of the Arduino board to your computer.
  15. Wait for the "USB-SERIAL CH340 (COMn)" device to appear under the "Ports (COM & LPT)" section of the Device Manager tree.
    :exclamation: This will take a couple of minutes as Windows must first automatically reinstall the driver.
    :exclamation: It might appear first as a "USB2.0-Serial" device under the "Other devices section of the tree. Just wait for a little longer and it will appear in its final place under the "Ports (COM & LPT)" section.
  16. Click the following link to download the previous version of the driver from the chip manufacturer's website:
    https://www.wch-ic.com/downloads/file/65.html?time=2023-03-16%2022:57:59
  17. Wait for the download to finish.
  18. Run the downloaded CH341SER.EXE file.
  19. A "User Account Control" dialog may now appear asking "Do you want to allow this app to make changes to your device?". Click the "Yes" button.
  20. A "DriverSetup(X64)" dialog will open. Click the "INSTALL" button in the dialog.
  21. Wait for the driver installation to finish, as indicated by the appearance of a "Driver install success!" dialog.
  22. Click the "OK" button in the "Driver install success!" dialog.
    The dialog will close.
  23. Click the X icon at the top right of the "DriverSetup(X64)" dialog.
    The dialog will close.
  24. Switch back to the Windows "Device Manager".
  25. Double click on the "USB-SERIAL CH340 (COMn)" device under the "Ports (COM & LPT)" section.
    The "USB-SERIAL CH340 (COMn) Properties" dialog will open.
  26. Select the "Driver" tab of the "USB-SERIAL CH340 (COMn) Properties" dialog.
  27. Click the "Update driver" button.
    An "Update Drivers Device - USB-SERIAL CH340 (COMn)" dialog will open.
  28. Click on "Search automatically for drivers" in the "Update Drivers Device - USB-SERIAL CH340 (COMn)" dialog.
  29. You should now see the driver installation wizard update the driver. Wait for the update to finish, as indicated by the message "Windows has successfully updated your drivers" in the dialog.
  30. Click the "Close" button in the "Update Drivers Device - USB-SERIAL CH340 (COMn)" dialog.
    The dialog will close.
  31. Click the "Roll Back Driver" button in the "USB-SERIAL CH340 (COMn) Properties" dialog.
    The "Driver Package rollback" dialog will open.
  32. Click the radio button next to "My apps don't work with this driver" in the "Driver Package rollback" dialog .
  33. Click the "Yes" button.
    The "Driver Package rollback" dialog will close.
  34. Click the "Close" button in the "USB-SERIAL CH340 (COMn) Properties" dialog.

Now start Arduino IDE again and repeat whatever you were doing before when you encountered that error before. Hopefully this time you will not encounter that "can't set com-state" error during the sketch upload.

avrdude: Version 6.3-20190619
Copyright (c) 2000-2005 Brian Dean, http://www.bdmicro.com/
Copyright (c) 2007-2014 Joerg Wunsch

     System wide configuration file is "C:\Users\jkeen\AppData\Local\Arduino15\packages\arduino\tools\avrdude\6.3.0-arduino17/etc/avrdude.conf"

     Using Port                    : COM4
     Using Programmer              : arduino
     Overriding Baud Rate          : 115200

avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding
avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 1 of 10: not in sync: resp=0xbd

avrdude done. Thank you.

Failed uploading: uploading error: exit status 1

I thought it was going to work but unfortunately no.

Please try this experiment and then report back with the results:


:exclamation: This procedure is not intended to solve the problem. The purpose is to gather more information.


  1. Connect the Arduino board to your computer with a USB cable.
  2. Press and release the button on the Arduino board that is marked "RESET".

Now please reply here on the forum thread with the answers to the following questions:

  • Did you see the LED marked "L" on the board blink immediately after you released the "RESET" button?
  • Did the LED blink only once, or did it blink multiple times quickly immediately after releasing the button?

But you now have a different error message :wink: Consider that progress :slight_smile:

Overriding Baud Rate : 115200 indicates that you're using the "328P" option under tools / processors in the IDE. Try the "old bootloader" option and if that fails the 168 under tools / processors.

The approach by @ptillisch in post #11 is to determine if there is a bootloader and if yes, which one.

\\\the light by L never lit up. Beside that \i have the red pwr light that stayed red no change at all\

System wide configuration file is "C:\Users\jkeen\AppData\Local\Arduino15\packages\arduino\tools\avrdude\6.3.0-arduino17/etc/avrdude.conf"

     Using Port                    : COM4
     Using Programmer              : arduino
     Overriding Baud Rate          : 57600
     AVR Part                      : ATmega328P
     Chip Erase delay              : 9000 us
     PAGEL                         : PD7
     BS2                           : PC2
     RESET disposition             : dedicated
     RETRY pulse                   : SCK
     serial program mode           : yes
     parallel program mode         : yes
     Timeout                       : 200
     StabDelay                     : 100
     CmdexeDelay                   : 25
     SyncLoops                     : 32
     ByteDelay                     : 0
     PollIndex                     : 3
     PollValue                     : 0x53
     Memory Detail                 :

                              Block Poll               Page                       Polled
       Memory Type Mode Delay Size  Indx Paged  Size   Size #Pages MinW  MaxW   ReadBack
       ----------- ---- ----- ----- ---- ------ ------ ---- ------ ----- ----- ---------
       eeprom        65    20     4    0 no       1024    4      0  3600  3600 0xff 0xff
       flash         65     6   128    0 yes     32768  128    256  4500  4500 0xff 0xff
       lfuse          0     0     0    0 no          1    0      0  4500  4500 0x00 0x00
       hfuse          0     0     0    0 no          1    0      0  4500  4500 0x00 0x00
       efuse          0     0     0    0 no          1    0      0  4500  4500 0x00 0x00
       lock           0     0     0    0 no          1    0      0  4500  4500 0x00 0x00
       calibration    0     0     0    0 no          1    0      0     0     0 0x00 0x00
       signature      0     0     0    0 no          3    0      0     0     0 0x00 0x00

     Programmer Type : Arduino
     Description     : Arduino
     Hardware Version: 2
     Firmware Version: 1.16
     Vtarget         : 0.0 V
     Varef           : 0.0 V
     Oscillator      : Off
     SCK period      : 0.1 us

avrdude: AVR device initialized and ready to accept instructions

Reading | ################################################## | 100% 0.00s

avrdude: Device signature = 0x1e950f (probably m328p)
avrdude: reading input file "C:\Users\jkeen\AppData\Local\Temp\arduino\sketches\69CD8DE5925429A4E0C3D27F22555C45/sketch_mar16a.ino.hex"
avrdude: writing flash (924 bytes):

Writing | avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding
######avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding
avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding
avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding
avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding

I tried the old bootloader and this came up

If it did not flash, there is no bootloader on the 328P processor. Can you post a link to what you exactly bought. Or post a clear photo of the top so we can try to identify the microcontroller.

The usual solution is to (try to) burn the bootloader.

nano v3.0 atmega328p/ch340 5v 16m micro controller

i found another controller the light by L flashes on it when you hit reset
]]\

avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding
avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 2 of 10: not in sync: resp=0xe8
Sketch uses 444 bytes (1%) of program storage space. Maximum is 30720 bytes.
Global variables use 9 bytes (0%) of dynamic memory, leaving 2039 bytes for local variables. Maximum is 2048 bytes.
avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding
avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 3 of 10: not in sync: resp=0xe8
avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding
avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 4 of 10: not in sync: resp=0xe8

It just blinked once

This error might be caused by having the wrong port selected from the Tools > Port menu in Arduino IDE.

Please perform this experiment to verify that the port you have selected is your Arduino board:

  1. Disconnect the USB cable of the Arduino board from your computer.
  2. Select Tools > Port from the Arduino IDE menus.
  3. Take note of the ports, if any, listed in the menu.
  4. Close the Tools menu.
    :exclamation: The ports list is only updated when the Tools menu is re-opened, so this step is essential.
  5. Connect the Arduino board to your computer with a USB cable.
  6. Select Tools > Port from the Arduino IDE menus. - If a new port is listed in the menu, that is the port of your Arduino board.

Select that port from the menu and try uploading again.

If the upload still fails, or if no new port appeared after you plugged the Arduino board into your computer, add a reply here to let us know and we'll investigate the problem further.