I'm currently studying for CCNA, and I bought some secondhand switches and routers to practice on. I didn't have a serial port on my computer (which is a self-built one ... Motherboard is ASRock FM2A88X Extreme 4+) so I purchased two serial/parallel I/O cards, each with a single parallel port and two serial ports. (Digitus DS-33040-1).

I've got the cards installed (at least they're showing up in Device Manager ... I haven't got anything to connect them to yet) but only one of them is working. The three ports on the other one are all coming up with the error:

This device cannot find enough free resources that it can use. (Code 12)

If you want to use this device, you will need to disable one of the other devices on this system.

Any ideas/help would be appreciated.

Code 12

This device cannot find enough free resources that it can use. If you want to use this device, you will need to disable one of the other devices on this system. (Code 12)

Cause
This error can occur if two devices that are installed on your computer have been assigned the same I/O ports, the same interrupt, or the same Direct Memory Access channel (either by the BIOS, the operating system, or both). This error message can also appear if the BIOS did not allocate enough resources to the device.

Recommended resolution
You can use the Troubleshooting Wizard in Device Manager to determine where the conflict is, and then disable the conflicting device.

1.Disable the conflicting device by using the Troubleshooting Wizard1.In the device's Properties dialog box, click the General tab.
2.Click Troubleshoot to start the Troubleshooting Wizard. The wizard asks you some simple questions and provides a solution to your problem based on the answers that you provide.
3.Follow the resolution steps provided by the wizard to resolve the problem

Another workaround
Did you try just using 1 PCI port serial?

Did you have external graphic card or any other PCI on your PC
Make sure you have the correct driver and update your Chipset and BIOS as well
Contact device manufactured for better answer.

FYI

By using converter you also can have more than 16 port using single PCI

• Edited by britishdhez 2 hours 31 minutes ago

Hi,

This error code means two devices have been assigned the same input/output (I/O) ports, the same interrupt, or the same Direct Memory Access channel. The assignment was made by either the basic input/output system (BIOS), the operating system, or a combination of the two.

Please run this "Fix it" tool to see if it could resolve your issue:

Hardware devices are not working or are not detected in Windows

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/mats/hardware_device_problems

If it doesn't work, disbale the conlict device manually:

1. Open the device manager.

2. Double-click the issued device.

3. Click the Resources tab, under Conflicting device list, check which device conflicts

4. Disable it to try again.

In addition, please refer to this article:

Code 12: This device cannot find enough free resources that it can use

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc732199(v=ws.10).as

Code 12

This device cannot find enough free resources that it can use. If you want to use this device, you will need to disable one of the other devices on this system. (Code 12)

Cause
This error can occur if two devices that are installed on your computer have been assigned the same I/O ports, the same interrupt, or the same Direct Memory Access channel (either by the BIOS, the operating system, or both). This error message can also appear if the BIOS did not allocate enough resources to the device.

Recommended resolution
You can use the Troubleshooting Wizard in Device Manager to determine where the conflict is, and then disable the conflicting device.

1.Disable the conflicting device by using the Troubleshooting Wizard1.In the device's Properties dialog box, click the General tab.
2.Click Troubleshoot to start the Troubleshooting Wizard. The wizard asks you some simple questions and provides a solution to your problem based on the answers that you provide.
3.Follow the resolution steps provided by the wizard to resolve the problem

Another workaround
Did you try just using 1 PCI port serial?

Did you have external graphic card or any other PCI on your PC
Make sure you have the correct driver and update your Chipset and BIOS as well
Contact device manufactured for better answer.

FYI

By using converter you also can have more than 16 port using single PCI

• Edited by britishdhez Wednesday, March 25, 2015 4:47 AM