1. Is there a diagnostic program I can use to determine if my RS-422/485 Universal PCI board is working?

2. Why can't I get my serial board to perform at 921.6 kbps?

3. Under which OS is my RS-422/485 Universal PCI supported?

4. All of Quatech's UniversalPCI Cards have a Microsoft Windows XP registered driver. In some cases, changes and updates are available that are not Microsoft signed. What does it mean to have an unregistered Windows XP driver? Why do I get a warning screen when I install some drivers from the Quatech COM CD?

5. How do I disable the Windows XP Driver Signing check?

6. How do I install my Universal PCI serial board under Windows 95/98/Me?

7. My Universal PCI board installs as COM 5&6 under Windows 95/98/Me, but my application can only use com port 1-4. How can I configure my card to use com ports 1-4.

8. How do I uninstall my Universal PCI serial board under Windows 9x/2000/XP?

9. Where can I find help with using my RS-422/485 Universal PCI board under OS/2?
   
   
10. Do I need local administrator rights to install a Quatech serial device?
    
    
11. Can I get the "IND" surge suppression package on Quatech Universal PCI serial boards?
    
    
12. I want to program the UART for a specific application, how can I get information on UARTs?
    
    
13. When installing a product, I get an error message stating "The System Cannot Find the File Specified." How can I fix this?
    
    
14. The jumpers on my new board do not match the jumpers on my old board. How do I know how to configure my new card so the settings are the same as my old card?
    
    
15. After updating the driver on my serial card device manager shows a yellow exclamation point with an error code 10 (Device can not start). What happened?
    
    
16. My UniversalPCI device will not install with the drivers provided. My board is identified as a PCI device.
    
    
17. Why can't I change my port settings in Windows Device Manager?
    
    
18. My device only requires Data + and Data - lines. How do I wire my Quatech card for a two wire application?
    
    
19. I can not get my Quatech card to work in a modbus application.

Q1. Is there a diagnostic program I can use to determine if my RS-422/485 Universal PCI board is working?

A. There are several ways to go about testing the product. The easiest way for Windows users is to connect a Loopback on the Port and use HyperTerminal to test it. HyperTerminal is included with Microsoft operating systems. If you don't see it listed in Program Manager, you may need to install it from the Windows CD. OS/2 users may use the HyperAccess Lite application in the OS/2 BonusPak to do the same.RS-422/485 Loopback Instructions

Q2. Why can't I get my serial board to perform at 921.6 kbps?

A. Data rates (or baud rates) are highly system dependent. It is impossible for Quatech to know exactly how one of our products will perform in your specific system. Some major factors that affect baud rate are cabling, OS, and FIFOs. For more information about maximum data rates, see the Quatech "Serial Data Rate Information Sheet"

Q3. Under which OS is my RS-422/485 Universal PCI supported?

A. View the latest OS support matrix for RS-422/485 Serial Universal PCI Board.

Q4. All of Quatech's UniversalPCI Cards have a Microsoft Windows XP registered driver. In some cases, changes and updates are available that are not Microsoft signed. What does it mean to have an unregistered Windows XP driver? Why do I get a warning screen when I install some drivers from the Quatech COM CD?

A. Microsoft has implemented a new driver signing program. This program verifies that the driver will not cause problems on the system. Although driver signing isn't a complete indication that a driver is safe or bug-free, it's certainly reasonable to assume that signed drivers are generally safer for overall system health than unsigned drivers. In addition, driver signing ensures against a Trojan horse or virus application being introduced into a driver, or having the driver replaced with other code.

However, just because a driver is unsigned DOES NOT mean that it will not function properly in your system. An "unregistered" driver is one that has not been officially tested and certified by Microsoft. Unlike previous versions of Windows, Windows XP warns users every time they try to install a driver that Microsoft has not certified. Quatech thoroughly tests all drivers before releasing them to our customers. The Microsoft XP warning has nothing to do with the quality of our driver or its ability to function properly in your system.

XP driver development is an ongoing process. We are in the process of submitting all Quatech Windows XP drivers for review by Microsoft, and we fully expect to receive certification for most products in the coming months. However, every time we update a driver it must be re-certified. Until this certification process is complete, the updated driver will remain unsigned. Because we want to provide the best possible service for our customers, we release our XP drivers prior to receiving Microsoft certification--this gets them into your hands faster! However, we will always continue to make the most recent signed driver available even if there are more recent unsigned updates.

When you see this warning during an installation of a Quatech's Windows XP driver, simply tell Windows that you want to install the driver anyway, and continue with the standard installation process.

Q5. How do I disable the Windows XP Driver Signing check?

A. To disable Windows XP driver signing warnings, follow the steps below:

1. Double click on the System icon in Control Panel.
2. Left click on the Hardware tab.
3. Left click on the Driver Signing button. (click here for a screen cap of the Driver Signing Options Window
4. Choose the Ignore option. Click on O.K. and then Apply and O.K.
5. Windows will not warn anymore about driver signing.

Q6. How do I install my Universal PCI serial board under Windows 95/98/Me?

A. An "INF" configuration file is included with your Quatech Serial board to allow easy configuration in the Windows 95/98/Me environment. Also, a custom Windows 95/98/Me serial device driver is included with the board to support the use of the 16750 UART's 64 byte FIFO. Windows 95/98/Me uses the "INF" file to determine the system resources required by your board, searches for available resources to fill the boards requirements, and then updates the hardware registry with an entry that allocates these resources.

The following instructions provide step-by-step instructions on installing a Quatech serial PCI board in Windows 95/98/me using the "New Hardware Found" wizard.

1. After booting the computer with a newly-installed Universal PCI serial board, the "New Hardware Found" dialog box will appear. If you have never installed a Quatech PCI communication adapter before, the dialog box may simply indicate that it has found a "PCI Card."
2. Select the radio button for "Driver from disk provided by hardware manufacturer." Click the "OK" button to continue.
3. An "Install From Disk" dialog box should pop up. Insert the Quatech COM CD with the Quatech INF files on it, select the correct drive letter, and click the "OK" button. Windows 95/98/Me automatically browses the root directory for an .INF file that defines configurations for Multi-function Adapters. If no INF files are found, click the "Browse" button and navigate to the "\Serial Port Adapters\Drivers\Windows 95, 98, Me for PCI" folder on the Quatech COM CD. You are not required to select the file name. After finding the directory containing the INF files, Windows 95/98/Me will choose the correct file.
4. The "New Hardware Found" dialog box will appear again, this time for an "Unknown Device."
5. Again select the radio button for "Driver from disk provided by hardware manufacturer." Click the "OK" button to continue.
6. Another "Install From Disk" dialog box will pop up. The path should already be pointing to the Quatech COM CD. Click the "OK" button to continue.
7. You should now see the "Copying Files" dialog box as Windows 95/98/Me copies the driver files from the CD.
8. The installation utility will ask for your Windows 95/98/Me system CD. Serial communication ports require two drivers supplied by Microsoft to function: SERIAL.VXD and SERIALUI.DLL. Insert the Windows CD and click "OK"
   
   NOTE: You may be able to skip this step if you are certain that your system has the latest version of these files installed. If you do not have your Windows 95/98/Me system CDs immediately available, click "OK" anyway. A dialog box appears with an option to Skip the files. Click the Skip button and the files will not be installed. This is all right if the latest versions of these drivers are currently in the \WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory.
   
   
9. The "New Hardware Found" dialog will repeat as each serial port is registered with Windows 95/98/Me
10. Installation is complete.

Q7. My Universal PCI board installs as COM 5&6 under Windows 95/98/Me, but my application can only use com port 1-4. How can I configure my card to use com ports 1-4.

A. See our COM Port Enumeration Tip Sheet for answers to common questions about installation.

Q8. How do I uninstall my Quatech Universal PCI board under Windows 9x/2000/XP?

A. The following procedures should be used to uninstall a Quatech Universal PCI board-- where noted specific instructions will be given for any platform dependent procedures. The uninstall procedure should be used when you want to completely delete a Quatech card from your system--either because you will no longer be using the card, or if you want to "start from scratch" with a newer version of the driver.

Step 1: Remove the product from Device Manager

1. Open Device Manager and find the Quatech product.
2. Highlight the product and click on the Remove button (Win9x)
   or right click on it and chose uninstall from the menu (Win2000/XP).
3. The Quatech product will now be removed from the Device Manager Tree.
4. If you do not see your Quatech Product in Device Manager please try the following (Win2k/XP Only).
   1. Enable Device Manager to view hidden devices: Start/control panel/System/Advanced/Environment Variables
   2. Under System Variables, click New.
   3. For variable name, enter "DEVMGR_SHOW_NONPRESENT_DEVICES".
   4. For value, enter 1.
   5. "OK" all the way back out.
   6. Close and reopen Device Manager. Select "View/Show Hidden Devices".
   7. As a test, there should be a new category called "Non-Plug and Play Devices." (Ignore it)
   8. Look for any Quatech related entries. Delete them.

Step 2: Delete .inf and .pnf files

1. In Windows Explorer, go to the Tools menu and select Folder Options...
2. On the View tab enable Show Hidden files and folders.
3. Uncheck Hide extensions for known file types.
4. Uncheck Hide protected operating system files (Recommended).
5. Click on Apply and O.K.
6. Find the inf folder on the left hand side of Windows Explorer. It will be located at c:\windows\inf or c:\winnt\inf (Win2k).
7. Right click on the inf folder and select Search or Find...
8. Fill in the following information for the search Results Window.
   All or part of file name: *.inf
   A word or phrase in the file: quatech
   Look in: inf
9. Click the search button.
10. The search results will list a file called msports.inf. Do nothing with this file.
11. The files of interest are anything named oem?.inf. ? meaning a number (i.e. oem3.inf). Delete the oem?.inf file that is returned for you from the c:\windows\inf folder.
12. You will also see a oem?.pnf (i.e. oem3.pnf) file. This "sister" file must also be deleted.

Q9. Where can I find help with using my RS-422/485 Universal PCI board under OS/2?

A. Though OS/2 is becoming increasingly less popular, Quatech knows that there are many dedicated users out there. See our OS/2 tip sheet for answers to common questions about installation, un-installation, configuration, and troubleshooting.

Q10. Do I need local administrator rights to install a Quatech serial device?

A. Yes. When installing most kinds of hardware, you must have local admin rights or equivalent on the PC. If your computer is part of a Domain or participates in a networked environment, please contact your local LAN Administrator for assistance.

Q11. Can I get the "IND" surge suppression package on Quatech Universal PCI serial boards?

A. No. At this time that option is only available on our PCI boards. If you are interested in getting the "IND" option for Universal PCI boards, please contact your Quatech sales representative to discuss custom product ordering.

Q12. I want to program the UART for a specific application, how can I get information on UARTs?

A. Yes, surge suppression is available for Quatech's UniversalPCI products. Please contact Quatech's sales department at 800.553.1170 for more information.

Q13. When installing a product, I get an error message stating "The System Cannot Find the File Specified." How can I fix this?

A. Windows 2000/XP has a bug that it cannot properly detect new hardware by *.inf files, if the RunOnce registry key is missing.
This key is often used by installers to execute post-reboot programs, but sometimes they accidentally delete this key.

Go to Start » Run and enter "regedit"
Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion
With CurrentVersion Highlighted, go to the Edit menu and select New » Key
Name the key RunOnce  - Leave everything else about the key alone.
The RunOnce key should now exist underneath the CurrentVersion key.

Reboot your PC.
Once the key exists, Windows 2000/XP stops redetecting the Hardware

Q14. The jumpers on my new board do not match the jumpers on my old board. How do I know how to configure my new card so the settings are the same as my old card?

A. All of the UniversalPCI Serial Cards have the ability to be configured through software selections. Hardware jumper settings are no longer necessary to configure the PCI card. Please see your User's Manual for further details on software selections.

Q15. After updating the driver on my serial card device manager shows a yellow exclamation point with an error code 10 (Device can not start). What happened?

A. All of our serial devices have two separate listings in Device Manager after installation. The parent device, which will be your device name, will be listed under Multiport Serial Adapters.

The second listing is for the COM ports themselves, which will be found under Ports (COM & LPT). When updating a driver for a Quatech device, you will need to be sure that you run the update for both the board and the ports. If the driver for the board and ports do not match, an error code 10 will appear.

To check your driver version, please right click on the board/ports and go to Properties. From there you will click on Drivers tab.

Q16. My UniversalPCI device will not install with the drivers provided. My board is identified as a PCI device.

A. The two common reasons this happens is:
1. the card programming has somehow become corrupted or,
2. the PCI slot you are plugged in to is having issues.

If at all possible, can you please try to install on another PC? That would determine if the issue is with the card or PC. If it is the card, please contact Quatech at 800.553.1170.

Q17. Why can't I change my port settings in Windows Device Manager?

A. The application used with the device manager interface changed from a drop down menu to a toggle. Plesae refer to the screen shot below:

The current version of the Quatech driver for your product has the menu updated to show a drop down selection.

Q18. My device only requires Data + and Data - lines. How do I wire my Quatech card for a two wire application?

A. For any customer using a Quatech 9 pin connector that wants to configure for a two wire application, you must connect pins 2 and 4 for Data + and pins 7 and 8 for Data -. Please be sure to make appropriate software selections within your device manager. For more information, please refer to your User's Manual. Hardware jumpers are no longer necessary for configuration.

Q19. I can not get my Quatech card to work in a modbus application.

A. Quatech does not offer or provide support for any Modbus protocol applications.