but yeah, I basically tried different combination of wiring (MOD to ground vs not etc), power sources (battery and laptop), but still get crashes
7 crashes are enough for me
maybe it has something to do with not closing or opening the com port correctly
But nothing has been consistent though since I have restarted my laptop and still get crashes
Sounds like you have a shorting problem. Do you have a serial port on the laptop, or are you using a USB/serial converter? Have you tried using the serial port with other devices? When you say crash, do you mean BSOD? Have you tried different cables? I doubt it is software related (closing/opening com port correctly).
I’ve had problem with a cheap USB serial port. was something with the driver i think. then i got one with an FTDI chip and it stopped crashing. try another brand and see if it helps