HP Procurve J4900A 2626 Switch

[Peter Covach]

I am trying to access the console port on a Procurve J4900A 2626 switch in my company. We have three identical switches that all exhibit the same problems. None of the console ports are responsive.

I am using Windows XP Hyperterminal. I am using the official HP Serial Cable. I am using the following settings in hyperterminal:
Bits: 9600
Data Bits: 8
Parity: None
Stop bits: 1
Flow Control: Xon/Xoff

I have also tried changing the Emulation to both ANSI & VT100. I have also ensured that "Function, arrow, and ctrl keys act as" is set to "Terminal Keys"

Everything yeilds the same results. There is output to the console screen on boot of the switch, but it seems like I cannot send any keys to the switch. Pressing [ENTER] does not do anything. I have tried rebooting the switches thinking the console port was froozen. This did nothing.

I can telnet to two of the switches to confirm the console settings of those switches. The third switch cannot be accessed through telnet or http. An administator locked themselves out. Without gaining access to the console port, I cannot fix the third switch.

[Peter Covach]

Update for anyone who runs into the same issue. Procurve are VERY picky when is comes to what serial connection is on the PC side. I was using a USB-to-Serial cable between the PC and the Procurve Switch. Found a computer that had a native Serial cable attached to it. Worked like a charm. I also used putty as the interface instead of hyperterminal. The only settings I had to adjust for putty was to utilize a serial connection.

[Mohammed Faiz]

That's interesting, I've used a few different types of serial-USB cables on various Procurves (both standard serial console interfaces and the newer RJ-45 ones) and haven't come across any issues like this.
The problem I usually have is Windows assigning a different COM port if I plug into a different USB port!