Troubleshooting IrDA Issues
What is IrDA?
Short for Infrared Data Association, a group of device manufacturers that developed a standard for transmitting data via infrared light waves. Increasingly, computers and other devices (such as printers) come with IrDA ports. This enables you to transfer data from one device to another without any cables. For example, if both your laptop computer and printer have IrDA ports, you can simply put your computer in front of the printer and output a document, without needing to connect the two with a cable.
IrDA ports support roughly the same transmission rates as traditional parallel ports. The only restriction on their use is that the two devices must be within a few feet of each other and there must be a clear line of sight between them.
Microsoft has the following information on connecting a peripheral device to IrDA at http://support.microsoft.com
How do I determine if my laptop has an IrDA port?
Each manufacturer of laptops have the own set of requirements and specifications for IrDA. Also, each manufacturer has a specific way to enable IrDA. We are providing you a link to the major manufacturer's website on determining if you have IrDA on your laptop. If you do not find your manufacturer on this list, please contact them directly. Also, you may need to contact the manufacturer on how to enable the IrDA port.
Here is a picture of the IrDA port on a laptop, this should look similar to the laptop that you have.
NOTE: We recommend you set the IrDA port for Fast IrDA (IrDA 1.1 compliant) for best communications between the laptop and the AED.
For Dell:
To determine if your laptop has IrDA port? http://support.dell.com
How to enable and disable in the BIOS for Latitudes? http://support.dell.com
For Compaq/HP:
Please contact Compaq/HP: You can either put in your serial number at http://welcome.hp.com/country/us/en/support.html?pageDisplay=support, or give them a call at 800-474-6836 (for HP) or 800-652-6672 (for Compaq Presario products). (Note, there will be a charge for this call.)
For Gateway:
Please contact Gateway. You can either put in your serial number at this page - http://support.gateway.com/support/ or give them a call at 800-229-1103 (note, there will be a charge for this call).
For Lenovo (IBM):
Please contact Lenovo. You can either put in your serial number at this page - http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?sitestyle=lenovo&lndocid=HOME-LENOVO or give them a call at 800-426-7378 (note, there may be a charge for this call).
Can not find the IrDA port.
Steps to do:
- Go into device manager (from my computer icon, right click on properties, click on hardware, device manager)
- Look for the IrDA port as circled above. Make sure this is active. To do this, right click on the device, then click on properties:
- This will bring up the following screen, you want to make sure this is active:
Other items to consider that can cause communication errors are:
- IrDA operated close to widows that allow sunlight into work area
- Bright overhead lights
- Some newer computers with faster processors and transfer speeds can also cause problems.