I purchased a Dell Inspiron 8500 running Win XP Pro. I require two serial ports. I am attempting to use a PC card serial adapter (Socket Communications) to add a second serial port. The computer was working fine for about a week and then began tohang. I removed the PC card and the system restarted. Dell had me run diagnostics that did not find anything wrong and had me reformat the hard drive. But the computer still hung when I inserted the card. Dell then had me send the computer in and they replaced the system board.
I received the computer back and it was working okay for two days and then began to hang again. Dell says it’s the card, but the card works just fine in another computer I have running Win 98. They had me run diagnostics again; no errors found. They are sending me a new hard drive.
I should also mention that this computer becomes extremely hot. The Dell computer melted the serial numbers from the card. I have been using this same card for a year in my Windows 98 computer and it has never gotten that hot. Also, the stickers on. Is this normal?
I am thinking that perhaps there may a conflict but no conflict was displayed in Device Manager (when I could access the Device Manager with the card installed). Now I cannot do anything once the card is installed because it hangs within seconds. I had the Device Manager open when I inserted the card hoping to see a possible conflict. But the card did not list itself under Ports (COM & LPT) asit had in the past.
Once the computer starts to hang when a PC card is inserted, inserting any PC card will cause the computer to hang. I inserted an Ethernet card and instead of getting the Installation Wizard the system hung until I removed the card.
I am very frustrated by the situation. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
