Most PCs have a number of COM ports, you might not have the correct port selected, you can change that in the Options>Port Menu This window lists all the available ports, those in capital letters are recognized as FTDI USB serial ports and are usually the location of the ARMexpress Eval PCB or the ARMmite.
One other reason that communication could be lost, is that the driver can lose sync with the card if it is disconnected and reconnected with the USB, especially when BASICtools or TclTerm (under MakeItC) is running and connected to the card. When this happens it is often necessary to restart the PC. Because the serial port is being emulated, and the Windows enumerator gets involved, when the USB is disconnected, the various pieces of software can get confused if the port is open. If you are using the original hardware serial port, normally with COM1 this is not an issue.
This can be found in the Control Panel>System>Device Manager
While rare there are systems out there with non-plug and play serial ports, or its possible for 2 com ports to have the same address. The address can be changed from the Control Panel.
Control Panel> System> Hardware> Device Manager> Ports> Port Settings> Advanced
Our software does not reinstall the USB drivers if they already existed. We expect to be running version 2.4.6.0 dated 3/13/2008 (for XP). Find this in the Control panel>Driver properties
If this does not match, then you have an older driver and it should be updated...
This will be shown if the port you were using last time the program was run is no longer available. You must reselect a Port using the Option Menu to reestablish communication with the ARMmite or ARMexpress.
Check the serial connection to your PCB.
Odd behavior following Windows Update
In rare cases, when the Windows Update has automatically rebooted while
BASICtools was running, the serial port settings of BASICtools have been
corrupted. To correct this, reboot the system, and if the problem persists
delete the BASICtools configuration settings (BASICtools.ini, it will be regenerated
when you run BASICtools). This file is located in the Program Files\Coridium
directory.
Have Fun!!