Remove
Unused Ports with Windows
Vista
(Getting Bluetooth to Work With Vista and Generic Bluetooth Dongle)
Home: dbpeckham.com
Overview/Problem: I’m using a Bluetooth
USB dongle with an AirCable Bluetooth Serial adapter.
Each time I plug in the Bluetooth USB dongle and re-add a connection to
my serial device the COM port number is incremented by two.
For example, the first time I add a connection the COM ports are COM 6
(outgoing serial) and COM 7 (incoming). The
next time COM 8 and COM 9 are assigned. The
next time COM 10 and COM 11 are assigned. After several re-adds my COM
ports were COM 20 and COM 21.
My
serial device will only accept COM ports up to COM 20.
The following steps describe how I remove the unused COM ports and return
to the original COM 6 and COM 7 (The COM numbers for your computer may be
different than COM 6 and COM 7.)
1.
Power up Bluetooth serial (AirCable).
2.
Start laptop with Vista Home
Premium and wait 2 minutes.
3.
Plug in the generic Bluetooth
dongle.
4.
Click tray Bluetooth icon to show
Bluetooth devices.
5.
Select and remove the existing
device.
6.
Unplug and plug in the generic
Bluetooth dongle.
·
My Bluetooth COM Port is 6-Outgoing
Serial, and 7-Incoming
7.
Add a new connection for the
Bluetooth serial.
8.
Start>Control Panel>Device
Manager
9.
If COM ports with a higher number
than your selected ports (mine are COM 6 and COM 7) exist, do the following:
·
Right-click the port number that is
the Output port (Click the Bluetooth icon in the tray to determine which COM
number is output and which is input).
·
Let’s say for my example that
Device Manager>Ports shows COM 11 and COM 12, and that COM 11 is output.
i.
Right-click COM 11 and select
“Properties”
ii.
Click the “Port Settings” tab
and the “Advanced” button.
iii.
Click the COM Port number dropdown
list and reassign it to COM 6 (the desired Outgoing COM port for my computer).
Click OK a couple of times.
iv.
Now, right-click COM 12 (input),
Properties, “Port Settings” tab, and “Advanced” button.
v.
v. Reassign COM 12 to COM 10
(OK...), reassign to COM 9 (OK...), reassign to COM 8 (OK...), reassign to COM 7
(OK...). (You are clearing out unused COM ports 10, 9, and 8.)
vi.
Click OK a couple of times.
vii.
Click the tray Bluetooth icon and
remove the existing device.
viii.
Pull the Bluetooth USB dongle out
of the computer and reinsert it.
ix.
Click the tray Bluetooth icon,
search for and add your Bluetooth serial device.
At
this point your remote Bluetooth device should have a good connection.
I
successfully followed these steps and connected to the Bluetooth device three
times in a row with no failures.
September
9, 2008