Microsoft KB Archive/304979

= COM Ports Are Enumerated Incorrectly After Running Sysprep.exe =

Article ID: 304979

Article Last Modified on 2/20/2007

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Windows 2000 Server
 * Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional Edition
 * Microsoft Windows 2000 Datacenter Server

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This article was previously published under Q304979



SYMPTOMS
After you duplicate an image with the Sysprep.exe tool, two COM ports may be enumerated in Device Manager as COM2. If you remove the COM ports in Device Manager and then redetect the hardware in the computer, the ports are detected as COM2 and COM3.



CAUSE
This issue can occur if the device ID information for the COM ports in the BIOS in the master image is different from the device ID information for the COM ports in the BIOS on the target computer. For example, this issue could occur in the following scenario:

You create the master image on a computer in which the BIOS is programmed to assign COM1 and COM2 to devices with _UID 0 and 1. You then duplicate the image on a computer in which the BIOS is programmed to assign COM1 and COM2 to devices with _UID 1 and 2.



RESOLUTION
To avoid this problem, do not use Sysprep on computers that have different settings for the COM port IDs.



STATUS
Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.

Keywords: kbenv kbprb KB304979

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