COM Port nightmare

Hi everyone,

I was wondering if someone has seen this problem before and might be able to assist. For some reason on Fujitsu Siemen PC's the COm ports just seem to stop working out of the blue and for no particular reason.

The situation is this. This Fujitsu PC acts as a print server and has a print module app that filters the print jobs to specific impact printers. (don't ask, I know it is old but the printer must be used) to print what this company needs. The printers are connected directly to the PC through LAN (RJ45) cables with DB (9pin and 25 pin) at the PC and printer ends. One second the printer will be working and the next it will not, like flipping a light switch. The mother board was replaced and that seemed to fix those COM port issues but then the serial PCI card that is in the PC, one of it's COM ports seems to have stopped functioning.

This setup has been working with 4 COM ports for sometime and all of a sudden just seemed to stop working. Looks like a resource problem but can anyone provide some ideas what might be the problem.

Also this is not the first time this happened. It has happened before and with just using the two COM ports on the motherboard and different print module software. it sounds hardware related to me but can anyone assist.

Thanks,

It's not clear exactly how the printers are connected. How many are there? Can some of them obtain an IP address either with a external or internal print server? How many printers still use the older style cables?