serial ports available?

[atferrari]

My laptop, no surprise, has no connectors for serial ports.

The BIOS details, show:

COM1 in 3F8 with IRQ 4
COM2 in 2F8 with IRQ 3

The "system information" utility shows

COM1 in 3F8 -3FF with IRQ 4
COM4 with no address nor IRQ

MY questions:

Is all this a leftover that nobody care to eliminate?
What's the reason for such inconsistent info?
Which is true?
How to know the above? (How to test?)

If I open my laptop, could I identify a valid point where to take the signal for a serial port if I accept the risk to install a proper connector?

All this is quite puzzling for me. Help appreciated.

 

[kinjalgp]

It is hard to find serial ports in new laptops . I guess the manufacturers forgot to remove serial port settings from Bios Setup.

 

[2PAC Mafia]

Hello,

I think in the BIOS, Infrared port and PCMCIA ports can be asociated also to COM ports, at least if I remember well in my one I could do it with IR on the BIOS and on one program running under Windows I could select also PCMCIA port as COM4.

 

[ivancho]

Some ports are actually left in case of a docking station is used, but they are not brought out to the back of the laptop

 

[panic mode]

in the old days each port had own chips and logic. later on all of this was brought into chipset which is one or two complex chips. chances are com ports are still part of chipset in your computer, it's just that nobody cared to wire them to DB9 ports. software used for diagnostic doesn't know that, it simply finds that hardware capabilty is built in. there is lots of people looking for com port in a laptop (every controls guy). consumer grade laptops don't have it but if you look into business models you will find that they all have them (i'm using dell latitude D800, all latitudes have it,
inspirons don't).