Ok, it was pretty straight forward:
The problem
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I could only open and use 1 serial port of my 2 built in ones at the same
time. They were set for the normal IRQ' and ports for COM1 & COM2.
If I had one open (say a PPP connection) and attempted to use the other
(say, as a serial terminal [agetty ttyS1 9600]), both would SLOW DOWN to
amazing levels (like 10 characters per minute).
As soon as I closed either port, the other would come back up with no
problems and no errors.
All the time, the kernel never reported any problems. I did not test this
under any other OS than Linux as I don't have any other installed on that box.
I tried in my AMI bios to move the serial ports to various other settings
(ie, COM1-COM4) to no effect.
The solution
-------------
I put in an internal modem into my 'puter, set it as COM3 and dialed out to
my PPP account.
I then attempted to use on of the two inboard ports. No problems!! If I
tried using all three, the two built-in ones would exhibit the same problem
as before, but the third would happily buzz along.
The Results
------------
My mobo's serial ports are fried :( I traded my external 36.6 modem for an
internal variety and everything works as expected.
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simple is elegant nicholas@binary9.net
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