IDE 2.3.6 :Port greyed; Tried to reinit but without success

Development Tools IDE 2.x
1

Hello everybody,

Seems almost like a "classical" issue.
The context :
Was working for several evenings on a prototype based on a Arduino uno R4 wifi, without issues -uploading /testing even switching for one board to another with success.
But then after a short break I cam back to the workstation and the com port was not available anymore (greyed option on the menu)
Actions ;

  • First check the USB cable - working
  • Try to look on COM port in the device manager - nothing special
  • Rename the arduino15 folder - had to reinstall the board files but still not COM selectable
  • Made a full unistall of arduino IDE (reboot - the plug the usb calbe again) - nothing

Infos :
The board(s) are powered correctly.
The progam already loaded in the boards are running as expected.
Windows 10 ; arduino IDE version 2.3.6

Well i am a bit lost... Should I try to unistall the com port themselves ?

2

Hi @torquelada

I'm not sure I understand what you mean by this.

Does a new COM port appear in Device Manager after you connect the UNO R4 WiFi board to your computer with a USB cable?

3

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image643×1088 172 KB

Well this is what I see now...

4

Please try this experiment and then report the results:

  1. Connect your Arduino board to your computer with the USB cable.
  2. Press and release the reset button on your Arduino board quickly twice.
  3. If it is already open, close the Tools > Port menu in Arduino IDE.
  4. Open the Tools > Port menu in Arduino IDE.

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

  • Do you now see the "L" LED on the board pulsing?
  • Do you see a port for the board in the Tools > Port menu?
5

Hello,

First, thanks for the help :slight_smile:
So,
Uno R4 wifi connected with the usb cable - done
Press/release - done
=> L led is pulsing on the board
=> At first trial the IDE was not open - Opened - Tools/Port: "COM3" is greyed

Second trial
USB cable changed - Physical port changed
Press/release - done
=> L led is pulsing on the board
=> on the IDE - Tool/Port is still greyed

Third trial
Back to the first USB cable and the first USB physical port
Press/release - done
=> L led is pulsing on the board
=> on the IDE - Tool/Port is still greyed

a capture of the menu

image
image498×643 12 KB

6

Please try this experiment and then report the results:

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

  1. Open the Windows Device Manager.
  2. Select View > Devices by type from the Device Manager menus.
  3. Open the "View" menu.
  4. If there is a ✓ to the left of the "Show hidden devices" menu item, click on "Show hidden devices" to disable it.
  5. Connect the Arduino board to your computer with the USB cable.
  6. Press and release the reset button on the Arduino board twice quickly.
  7. Select Action > Scan for hardware changes" from the Device Manager menus.
  8. Watch for a new device to appear under the "Ports (COM et LPT)" section of the Device Manager tree.

Now please reply here on this forum topic with the answer to the following question:

  • Did you see a new device appear in the "Ports (COM & LPT)" section of the Device Manager tree after you performed the above instructions?
7

Hello,

I followed the steps (but I do have one remark : if you disable the "show hidden devices" you cannot see what is going on "Ports (COM et LPT) "

So I did i twice to be certain
First without disabling the option and the steps 1 to 8 => nothing appears

image
image570×968 183 KB

The capture was taken after the scan

And the second time I followed exactly the steps => nothing to see

8

Had some doubts...

So i decided to "open" my usb cable to check if there was an issue... made a continuity tests pin by pin => found an issue there

Changed back to another cable (always have a spare one)

Issue is solved => IDE detected a device on COM5 now :slight_smile:

Thanks a lot for your reactivity and your help in that process

Regards,

9

When you have this setting enabled, Device Manager shows entries for all devices that have every been connected to your computer at any point in the past. We are only interested in the devices that are currently connected to your computer, so the display of "hidden devices" is not useful, and can also cause confusion.

With that setting disabled, if you don't see a "Ports (COM et LPT)" section in the Device Manager tree, then that means there are no ports currently recognized by your computer.

That result tells us that the problem is either at the Windows operating system level, or with the hardware (either the USB cable or the UNO R4 WiFi board hardware). So this excludes Arduino IDE as being a factor in the problem, and thus it is pointless to spend any time on IDE-specific things like reinstalling Arduino IDE or the boards platforms.

The fact that the "L" LED pulses after a double reset tells us that the primary RA4M1 microcontroller on the UNO R4 WiFi board is at least somewhat functional, and that its "boot" firmware is present.

Great news! Excellent work on troubleshooting the problem. Thanks for taking the time to post an update.

Regards, Per