GPS COM ports in Windows 7

[Dan Robinson]

For the second consecutive Windows 7 laptop I've owned, I'm having the problem of the GPS ports changing with every boot-up.

Franson GPSGate assigns different virtual COM ports every startup, and likewise StreetAtlas shows different COM ports in the settings drop-down. Sometimes, the StreetAtlas COM port list won't match any in the GPSGate list.

For example, GPSGate might assign COM 2, 4, 6 and 8 and StreetAtlas has COM 3,5,7 and 10 in the available list. The next boot-up, the COM numbers in both places will be different. The result is some startups result in the GPS working, some don't.

It's like it's not saving the COM settings, and just rolling the dice on the COM ports every time I boot the laptop up.

Has anyone else has this issue?

 

[Jeff Smith]

I have the same issue Dan. I haven't a clue how to fix it but it is frustrating-especially on re-boots during a chase..

 

[Mark Blue]

Have you tried deleting the file in the "Instances" folder in Windows where the GPSGate settings are stored? After that reboot and then run the setup wizard again to establish new settings. GPSGate is somewhat finicky for me too. Whenever I boot up and a position has been acquired, I have to open the program from the system tray, click the setup wizard icon, then cancel out of it in order to get it running with a signal that can be shared. Before I do that though it obtains a GPS position, but isn't sharing it with other programs until I nudge it (as in wake it up). Please let me know if you have this corrected yet or not.

EDIT: Here's a link on the GPSGate support forum for the background on why you would want to delete the "Instances" folder.