user56224: I'm completely new to electronics work.
Today I've received the ESP32 board that I ordered. (It's a WROOM-32.) I followed the instructions here. I connected the board to my computer via USB and I successfully installed the CP210x drivers and got a new serial port COM3, but when I tried to connect to the board with that serial port, I got nothing. I'm on Windows 7.
I tried with Tera Term, and it just shows an empty screen.
I tried type COM3 in the shell, but got an empty string.
I tried doing esptool.exe --chip esp32 -p com3 erase_flash, but I get "Failed to connect to ESP32: Timed out waiting for packet header".
I tried playing with the two buttons on the WROOM32 board, but that didn't help.
Any idea what I'm doing wrong? I'm a complete newbie so it's likely that I'm forgetting something basic.

user60077: The issue is that the Serial port on the ESP32-WROOM setup is not like like on the Arduino. It seems that the initialisation will 'miss' the USB enumeration after reboot.
To fix this add a delay in your setup() function of 10 to 15-seconds before initialising the serial. 
For example:
void setup() {
  delay(10000);
  Serial.begin(115200);

  Serial.println("Setting up Access Point...");
  .
  .
  .


56224: <p>I'm completely new to electronics work.</p>

<p>Today I've received the ESP32 board that I ordered. (It's a WROOM-32.) I followed the instructions <a href="https://startingelectronics.org/articles/ESP32-WROOM-testing/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">here</a>. I connected the board to my computer via USB and I successfully installed the CP210x drivers and got a new serial port COM3, but when I tried to connect to the board with that serial port, I got nothing. I'm on Windows 7.</p>

<p>I tried with Tera Term, and it just shows an empty screen.</p>

<p>I tried <code>type COM3</code> in the shell, but got an empty string.</p>

<p>I tried doing <code>esptool.exe --chip esp32 -p com3 erase_flash</code>, but I get "Failed to connect to ESP32: Timed out waiting for packet header".</p>

<p>I tried playing with the two buttons on the WROOM32 board, but that didn't help.</p>

<p>Any idea what I'm doing wrong? I'm a complete newbie so it's likely that I'm forgetting something basic.</p>
 60077: <p>The issue is that the Serial port on the ESP32-WROOM setup is not like like on the Arduino. It seems that the initialisation will 'miss' the USB enumeration after reboot.</p>

<p>To fix this add a delay in your setup() function of 10 to 15-seconds before initialising the serial. </p>

<p>For example:</p>

<pre><code>void setup() {
  delay(10000);
  Serial.begin(115200);

  Serial.println("Setting up Access Point...");
  .
  .
  .
</code></pre>
