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Hey,
I just got a new BCD396XT scanner and it is not syncing with my computer.

I have Windows Vista and I am using a serial port cable.

The driver for my serial port is up-to-date.
When I am in FreeSCAN I cannot gain virtual control of the scanner, It says that there is a critical Comms error everytime for every port I try.
Also, I have tried .9A and .9B versions of FreeSCAN and neither are able to sync with my scanner.

Any help would be appreciated!

Check that the serial port is setup correctley on the scanner, also check that control channel output mode is turned off.  Check in device manager to make sure the serial port appear when you plug in the adaptor. Also Vista sometimes needs special drivers.

Just FYI I run 0.9B on Vista Ultimate 32 bit to a serial port with no problems.  There was no special driver necessary since I was running to the serial port.  Those that run through a serial to USB adapter or with the Uniden USB cable which contains an adapter need to make sure they have the specific drivers for Vista which are, in some cases, different than those for prior OSs.

One thing is to make sure that the baudrate set on the scanner is the same as that set in FreeScan.  I use the maximum 115,200 but you might want to try a slower speed if it doesn't work at that speed.

Something else that you might want to try is to go into the Advanced Properties for the port and reduce the buffer settings.  That will reduce the throughput somewhat, but increase reliability.

Dick

The reason I am posting on here is because I have exhausted a lot of resources...
I have checked the C-CH output(off).
I have matched the baud rates at 11,520.
I downloaded both .9a and .9b.
I have tried all three ports.
I simply cannot get it to work.

My only question is, FreeSCAN picks up three ports - COM1, COM3, COM4
I do not get any notification on my pc when I plug my scanner in, nor is there any indication on device manager that there is a scanner in one of the ports. How do I resolve this-is this where my problem is?

If it is not creating a new device in device manager when you plug the adapter in, then this points to a driver problem. If you click on the Links button on this site, the top one goes to the PL2303 Driver Download page and they have Vista drivers there. When you plug your adaptor in, an extra com port should appear in device manager.

No luck with the download, same issue remains.

What  kind of adapter are you using?? Some of the offbrand ones with the built in cable are almost impossible.

It is literally the one that came packaged by uniden with the scanner.
I plug it into a port on the back of my pc that says IOIOI and then plug in the other end into the remote part of the scanner.

Oh ok so you are not using an adaptor at all then. In this case, if COM 1 3 & 4 do not work, then you need to go into your BIOS setup and check to make sure COM ports are enabled and setup right. So few computers come with serial ports, and you said you downloaded drivers for the serial ports, I thought you were talking about a USB/Serial adaptor.

Like you, I use the cable that came with the scanner connected to a serial port on my computer which is running Vista (Ultimate SP2 32 bit).  FreeScan works fine here.  There is nothing that happens when I plug the cable in as far as pop up messages or the like.  Similarly, Device Manager does not show the scanner.  What Device Manager does show, however, are the two (in my case) serial ports (COM1 and COM2) under Ports.  This is as it should be.

If you right click on a serial port in Device Manager, one of the choices is "Properties".  Click on that and then on the "General" tab.  The device status should say "This device is working properly".  If not, follow the instructions there to enable it.  Then click on the "Port Settings" tab and click on the "Advanced" button.  The "Use FIFO buffers" box should be checked.  You will see two sliders.  They are generally all the way to the right which gives the fastest performance but is least tolerant or various possible errors.  Move both of those sliders all the way to the left.  Then close the dialogs to get back to Device Manager.  Do you same thing for all of your other com ports since you aren't sure which one you are connected to.

I would then reboot and give the scanner and FreeScan another try.  Let us know what happened.

Dick

Serial port are rather archaic things. It would be nice if Uniden finally got with the program and put a USB port on these scanners, perhaps a smart USB port that can also act a serial port for GPS, etc. But they seem highly reluctant to do this, so until then we will all have to continue to do battle with serial port problems until somebody over there finally gets the message.

Thank you for the advice,
I had earlier moved just the buffer slide to the middle from the far right, I will later move both to the far left.
However, I think the problem lied in the BIOS setup,
When I checked the serial port settings it said it was on-
Auto - which disables the serial port if port 1 and 3 are being used.

So, I set it to port 1 (my choices were- disable/auto/port1/port3)

I will try this later today, because I do not have my scanner at the moment.

Thanks again!

It may be that your computer has a serial port connection on the front and another on the back but only one actual serial port and that the bios setting chooses which of the two connections gets connected to the actual working serial port inside the computer.  If, in fact, you have a connection on the front and one on the rear, try connecting to the other one.  I think that may be what the port 1, port 3, auto setting is about.

The Device status that I mentioned in the prior post should tell you whether the serial port is working, but wouldn't show whether it was connected to the front or to the rear of the computer.  Of course, if there is only one serial connection on your computer, then this theory is not correct and this entire post can be ignored.

Dick

Dick,
I only have one port on the back, but thanks for the thought.

It still does not work with the new settings.
I am going to list several possible issues and settings that pertain to the problem.
-My scanner is plugged in-> but should it be scanning or should I have the batteries out with the screen on
-The port properties in device manager->
   -Bits per second = 115,200
   -Data bits = 8
   -Parity = None
   -Stop bits = 1
   -Flow control = None
-Advanced properties ->
   -Use FIFO buffers (requires 16550 compatible UART) - (box is checked)
   -Receive Buffer = Low(1)
   -Transmit Buffer = Low (1)
   -COM Port Number - COM1
-Today I downloaded a big Microsoft update so I checked the drivers again and they were up-to-date


 

Also, here are the exact errors I get in FreeSCAN

When I click "Start Virtual Control"
   It says "Critical Comms Error detected, confirm you have selected a valid COM Port and that is not used by any other application."
When I go to COM Port Setup... and click Start Auto for Port # COM1 and Port 115200 (Enable DTR unchecked)
   It says "FreeSCAN could not establish communication with the scanner."
   For the other two ports the same thing happens.
   In Autodetection it says COM1 at a speed of 4800 status Fail even when I had set it to 115200 at the top??