Serial Port test in WinPE environment

[theoak]

I have created a WinPE disk to run BurnInTest (build 1005) from a bootable CD, using your excellent instructions. So far all tests work great except for the COM port test. The test computer has the external serial port configured as COM 1 in the BIOS, and within a regular Windows environment, COM 1 tests fine, but within WinPE, I get the message: "The requested COM port could not be found". Changing the COM port to be tested (within Test Preferences) does not work either. I did not do anything special to configure WinPE to test COM ports. I presume from the top of page 9 of the Bit_WinPE pdf file that no configuration is required. Am I doing something wrong?

[theoak]

As an additional piece of information, the COM port test works perfectly within WinPE environment on a different computer. But this Dell Latitude D630 only tests properly within Windows. Any suggestions? Or is this just a quirky computer?

[Tripredacus]

On the OS for that system, go into Device Manager. Look at the properties of COM1. Check driver details and it will tell you the miscellaneous driver files it uses. Copy those to a folder. Then go to the details tab and select INF NAME from the drop down. That file should be in C:\windows\INF. Copy that to the folder. Presuming no other files are needed (you can check the INF itself in notepad for a copyfiles (or similarly named section) you can inject the INF you found with DISM to your WinPE. If you can't inject (because you are using a ISO) then you can copy those files to the X:\windows\system32 after booting and use Drvload.exe to install the driver prior to running the test.

[theoak]

Thanks for your reply.

I found the files needed. They are: serenum.sys and serial.sys for the drivers. The INF file is: msports.inf. In C:\Windows\INF there is a file named msports, but it has no .inf extension. Is this the file? and if yes, can I inject it into my WinPE build by adding it to the drivers file like I did with the drivers for the Passmark USB loopback device drivers? Do I rename it msports.inf? If so, do I put them in drivers\COM or what?

[theoak]

My Bad. The file IS named msports.inf. I just had not unchecked the hide extensions thing in file views.

[Tripredacus]

Hmm... I'd do a file compare on the one there with the one in WinPE. I did a test and found my msports from Windows 7 was the same as on my WinPE. You could probably still use DISM or Drvload to load that INF file without having to worry about the one that is built into WinPE.

EDIT: that particular device on that product may have a delay start to it that makes it not available at the time WinPE detects it. If this is the case, Drvload would be the only option.

[theoak]

You are correct. A quick md5sum shows both msports.inf files are identical. It must be a delayed load as you have guessed. So, I guess drvload it is.

Thanks for your help!