Installed the Arduino IDE and connected the Uno board with proper board setting and Port set to COM3.
The Blink example worked fine.
Modifies the Blink code ... compiled successfully. Upload failed saying it could not connect to COM3.
Disconnected / reconnected board. No change.
Exited Arduino IDE and restarted. No Change.
Now does not work on COM3 for anything.
Any ideas?
The Arduino is probably not connected to COM3.
Use the Device Manager to learn which com port is connected to the Arduino.
Will do ... however that doesn't explain why it worked fine one moment, but not the next. Unfortunately I am doing this remotely with my grandson who is 4500 km away.
Any idea as to what could grab COM3 between instances of compile/load?
How dos Device Manager show what is connected to COM3 ... it doesn't show ADUINO UNO for example?
The boards are often programmed in the factory to run the blink example "out of the box", so there is no guarantee that anything worked, except that power was applied.
To figure out what port the Arduino is connected to, unplug it, open the Device Manager, check the com ports, then plug in the Arduino and see what new com port appears.
Probably something happened to the hardware between when it worked and when it didn't. Maybe it was a short circuit or a wire touching something where it should not.
The result was that now the Arduino or the USB on your computer does not work anymore.
Try using a different USB connector on your PC, if still no joy try another Arduino.
Thanks ... makes sense
So it seems my issue was the COM3 assignment. It seems that on the computer my grandson is using, several COM ports are reserved for Bluetooth devices. As soon as someone used a Bluetooth device itt stole that port.
Looking at the Device Manager, as recommended, we identifed COM12 as the port to use associated with the USB socket.
Result: all is well.
Thanks to the community for quick and thoughtful responses.
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