pde runs fine, exe does not start hangs , Serial support is stopping exe

pde with serial support for a usb serial i/o board works perfectly. export to exe and exe hangs with gray screen and must use task manager to stop it.

If i remove Serial support and export it runs , everything works but commented out i/o serial functions Only usbio is present , Device Manager sees it as COM6 There is only one COM port detected so rs232=0 stays 0 The pde runs and reports SERIAL PORT DETECTED message , verifying it is indeed seen by processing as COM6 when run. Writing to the port makes a lamp come on and off. It all works, but when i export it , the exe hangs upwith a gray screen and no error msg Only way to stop it is with task manager!

I'm really frustrated , how can it work in the pde when run and not the exported exe! I have POwer management off on all usb hubs that have the tab. What else can cause this?

import processing.serial.*;
Serial myPort0;
Serial myPort1;

usbio=0;
rs232=0;

 if(Serial.list().length==0)
  {
  fill(255,0,0);
  textSize(20);
  rect(imgstartcol,490+rtxt,640,50+rtxt);
  fill(0);
  text("NO USB SERIALS PORT DETECTED ",440,517+rtxt);
  }

 if(Serial.list().length>0)
  {
  fill(0,255,0);  // clear USB PORT MSG area
  textSize(20);
  rect(imgstartcol,490+rtxt,640,100);
  fill(0);

  for(x=0;x<Serial.list().length;x++)
   {
   if( (Serial.list()[x].substring(0,3)).equals("COM"))
    {
    if(x==0)
     {usbio=1; // I/O seen
      text("USB SERIAL PORTS DETECTED "+Serial.list()[x],440,517+rtxt+(x*20));   // display USB port msg until 1st test started
     }
    if(x==1)
     {rs232=1;  // chk later to output value to rs232 mill host computer
     text(", "+"COM X",790,517+rtxt+(0*20));   // display USB port msg until 1st test started
     }
    }
   }
  }

 if(usbio==1)
  {// set in/out pins on i/o chip
  myPort0 = new Serial(this, Serial.list()[0], 9600);
  myPort0.write("CU,1,0"+"\n"); // turn off OK response every command
  myPort0.write("PD,B,0,0"+"\n");  // B0 output vacuum
  myPort0.write("PD,B,1,0"+"\n");  // B1 output not used
  myPort0.write("PD,B,4,0"+"\n");  // B4 output lamp
  myPort0.write("PD,B,3,1"+"\n");  // B3 input not used
  myPort0.stop();
  }