Com Port and ECP Issue

[callowadmin]

Hey guys. This has been driving me mad. Just reimaged a machine and the ports are showing yellow exclamation points. Went into the bios, made sure they are turned on, etc. Everything looks good. Any idea what would cause this? The model is a Dell E6500 running XP. I also noticed there is no "standby" feature, meaning ACPI is not on this laptop. It's a new model, so I found this strange and wonder if it's linked to the same problem (chipset?). I installed all updated drivers so I don't know what else to do.

I attached an image so you can see the issue.
http://img8.imageshack.us/img8/6130/laptopus.jpg

 

[tigsounds]

You didn't say if you right-clicked them, read the properties and any error messages that could give you a clue of what's wrong.

Did you un-install them, and then have Windows search for new hardware?
Windows will find them again, perhaps it will insist on a driver, if so, you know the driver was corrupt and needs to be replaced, and now is your chance. If Windows just plugs in the standard driver, then it was probable good. Go back to first sentence, if there is an error, Windows is pretty good at telling you what it doesn't like.

 

[callowadmin]

sorry. yes, the error was code 29

Code 29
This device is disabled because the firmware of the device did not give it the required resources. (Code 29)
Recommended resolution

Enable the device in the BIOS.

Enable the device in the BIOS

Enable the device in the BIOS of the device. For information about how to make this change, see the hardware documentation or contact the hardware vendor.

The thing is, I've checked and double-checked that these devices are turned on in the BIOS.

 

[callowadmin]

Hmm, nobody?

What about the ACPI issue. Does anyone know why that isn't working? Is that something specific to the chipset and this laptop simply doesn't have it?

 

[tigsounds]

Since you say you went into the BIOS and everything is turned on etc...
Here's a few things to look at and see if they exist. If they don't I'd be looking closer at that image you loaded.

 

[tigsounds]

If you have a wheel mouse, hold the control key and use wheel to zoom.

 

[callowadmin]

Thanks, I will look for those now. Pretty sure I already looked for ACPI in the system devices and did not see it. I'm on the phone with Dell now. They're confused (shocker).

I think they just sent me a crappy laptop. Plain and simple. I can't update the bios without receiving an error that battery and adapter must both be plugged in. Clearly both are and both are working properly. I was hoping that updating the bios would solve this, but the machine won't even let me do that.

 

[callowadmin]

They're saying it's a motherboard issue...I don't necessarily disagree.