Batboard

I am by no means a computer expert, but I am looking for a new laptop. What laptops are still being built with the 9 pin serial port. I am looking for the 9pin serial port and something faster. I have a few others for DOS programs, so I am not worried about that part. I am open as to what brand. Just need some help from those of you that deal with this more than me.

fire_master_21 wrote:I am by no means a computer expert, but I am looking for a new laptop. What laptops are still being built with the 9 pin serial port. I am looking for the 9pin serial port and something faster. I have a few others for DOS programs, so I am not worried about that part. I am open as to what brand. Just need some help from those of you that deal with this more than me.

You can try Dell, they have some sort of sale going on right now, (I didn't read it it came in my mailbox)
I went to Dell & told them what/how I wanted it built, two notebooks..
The RAM I put a 1 GIG in each one. (be careful with Dell with Ram, there starting to put a 256kb of Ram, proprietary to some notebooks, so somewhere in a dell notebook they hide 256kb mb of RAM.) later Jim

http://www.dell.com/content/products/ca ... l=en&s=bsd on more details to look around..

I'm not aware of any Dell systems with a serial port though, i'm not aware of any current production models with an available serial port as far as that goes.

I have tried some USB to Serial adapters, some work, some don't.

The best recommendation i can make is this.. Go with whatever laptop you want, worry about price and features for now, and after you get it go order a PCMCIA Serial Port card and your set. Get one of the brand name cards though, costs a bit more but they are more stable. A 3Com PC Serial card with two ports works great. You can get two varieties of them, one looks like a modem card with dongle cables with the DB9 connectors, the other type has a large head end like a wireless card but bigger and had the serial ports right on it. I prefer the dongle cable style because it keeps the stress of your card and laptop slot.

They work fine, no need to worry about finding a laptop with a built in serial port, which i doubt exists anymore in current models, but if you happen to find a current production model that still has a serial port on it let me know, i got people asking me that all the time.

thanks Jim and Scott for the info. Now how would this config workout.

For example: Laptop http://www.dell.com/content/products/pr ... =dhs&cs=19

For example : docking station http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/prod ... u=A0414276

Then I could have the new laptop and the 9 pin for programming and then put the docking station in my bag when not in use.

I was just thinking about that, most of the docking stations / port replicators, still have serial ports on them. The only problem is, for $88 you can have a serial PC card. Let me look one up and i will post a link in a bit.

The 1505 is a good laptop but make sure you go through the customization and take advantage of any free upgrades and bump the ram up if it isn't at least 512MB.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6839104008

This one has a 25 pin serial port but includes a 25-9 pin adapter. I can't find the 3COM card that i have seen and used right now, it must be out of stock since it won't show in a search.

kb0nly wrote:I'm not aware of any Dell systems with a serial port though, i'm not aware of any current production models with an available serial port as far as that goes.

My 3 month old Dell Precision M20 has a serial port - both on the laptop and on the port replicator - I'm not sure if Dell still makes it, but it's been a rock solid machine. A little on the expensive side, but what do I care - work took care of that one.

Not a current model by the looks of it, though some still have a few of them listed as used/refurbished. Check out pricewatch, pricegrabber, amazon.com, overstock.com, a lot of deals to be found on slightly older models.

Get a Panasonic Toughbook CF-29 and be done with it. Check eBay

The Dell Inspiron 600m offers a serial port. I just got one....

The Dell Lattitude D610's have a serial port. We use those at work all the time. Nice little machine especially if you get one with blue tooth and wi-fi.

the Latitude 600 series should still come with the serial ports... My D600, D610 had them, as well as the new 620's looked to have them as well (if I recall).

Also, the Compaq/HP "mobile workstations" also seem to have these (nw8200 series).

-Alex

I like Socket's "ruggedised" serial cards.

No crappy dongles to snap off.

fire_master_21 wrote:I am by no means a computer expert, but I am looking for a new laptop. What laptops are still being built with the 9 pin serial port. I am looking for the 9pin serial port and something faster. I have a few others for DOS programs, so I am not worried about that part. I am open as to what brand. Just need some help from those of you that deal with this more than me.

I believe the higher-end IBM ThinkPads are still being built with RS232 ports. Failing that, you may have to look at GETAC or Dolch.

There is another option (that I chose): Get a slightly older Laptop (in my case, a Dell Latitude C640) from Greed-bay. There's at least a couple of sellers there who are authorized Dell dealers, and what they do is take machines in when they come off-lease, clean them up, and resell them at a much-reduced price.

Mine had something like 10 months of Dell Gold warranty left when I got it, and said warranty was fully transferable.

Laptops, contrary to popular belief, really don't need all the power and pizazz of their desktop cousins. You could save some serious bucks, and get a pretty decent system for said bucks, by going the 'off-lease' route.

Happy hunting.

We have about 150 Latitude 600 series computer at work and we are having a problem with the display power regulators going out. We have lost about 10% and some of those are out of warranty.
Besides that they are good.