com port trouble

[sitlet]

i just got a new sanyo cell phone and a usb data cable. i hooked it up to my computer and installed the drivers to make windows see the phone as a dial-up modem. all i have to do is dial #777 and it will make a connection with Sprint's internet service so i can get online. but i am having trouble with the com port. my current 56k modem installed in my laptop is using COM3, according to the modem page in the control panel. when i install the driver for the usb phone, it asks me what com port i want to set it up on, but it only gives me one choice: COM1. so i install it on com1, but everytime i try to make a connection, it says the port is already in use. i have tried everything, including uninstalling the current 56k modem, but nothing seems to work. is there any way to see what com ports i have on my computer, and whats using them? i know i have a IR port, and im pretty sure that uses a com port, but im not sure which one. and i had a palm pilot connected to this computer, and that used a com port (com1 i believe), but i read somewhere online that the palm software causes problems with the com ports, so i uninstalled that, but it didnt help either. any advice?

[Ripper2860]

COM 1 is probably your actual serial port on your system. Try going into BIOS and disable COM 1 (assunming you don't have an external modem or something else connected to it) and see if that now works.

[offline]

Why it does not work. COM 1 & 3 share IRQ's

To view IRQ's click on the start menu, select Run,
and type in msinfo32, check hardware resources and
select IRQ.

Possible solution.
-Unplug every physical COM device (includiing IR's)
and modem (remove them completely)

-Remove every COM device in system/hardware/device manager (Modem, IR, mouse?)

-Remove all listed COM's from device manager (COM1/COM2)

-Remove USB's and USB controllers

-Reboot system.

-Let windows find the ports again. Shutdown.

-Attach USB Phone and restart. Check IRQ setting
for USB. Install USB Phone. Reboot. Plug in all other
COM devices & reboot. That should do it

[sitlet]

well, i just tried all of that, and unfortunately it didnt work. now when i try to intstall the drivers for the usb modem, when it asks me which com port to select, there isnt any. i went on microsoft.com and found an article about this, and it told me to download this COMDisable tool. so i downloaded that and ran it in the command prompt and it said there is no com ports attached to this computer. so that program didnt work. so i went to the msinfo32, and it doesnt show anything on irq 2,3, and 4. but it actually shows my current 56k modem on irq 10, when actually its on com3. but ive even tried to just disable everything in the device manager, but that didnt work either. theres got to be some workaround for this.

btw, my laptop has the following ports: 1 firewire, 1 lpt printer port, 1 svideo out, 1 monitor out, 1 network port, and 3 usb2.0 ports.

[offline]

hmmm...
Can you give us a list of your IRQ's
Have you tried turning off coms in your bios?
Have you tried disabling all coms but 1 in device manager? Is there another version of your usb
phone software?

[sitlet]

i went into my bios and there wasnt anything about com ports. there was one option for the LPT port, whether it was bi-directional or just an output, but i dont think that setting would matter. and there was an option to enable or disable Legacy USB support. not sure what that is, but it was enabled so i left it like that.

and as for diabling coms in device manager, there are none listed. in the Ports(COM/LPT) menu, the only thing listed is the LPT1 printer port. there are no com ports listed anywhere.

oh and my computer is a laptop, so i cant just remove the components. i actually dont even use the 56k modem, so i tried uninstalling it, but of course, every time you start up windows it automatically recognizes it and installs it. is there a way around that?

here is a screen shot of my irq's if it helps.

[offline]

Yes, go to start > control panel > system > hardware > device manager, and right click on the device, then choose "disable".

[sitlet]

yeah but i tried that too and it didnt work. i just tried it on my old win98se machine and it worked fine on there. oh, theres one more thing though, when i first plug in the phone, it says installing "data interface". but it can never locate the drivers for it. so under unkown devices, there is 2 "data interface". ive pointed it to the modem drivers, but thats obviously not what its looking for. on my win98 computer, i never got this. could this be the problem? ive searched around for "data interface' but havent found anything

[offline]

You have to self install the correct drivers
for your phone. Check with your phones manufacturer
for the latest XP drivers.

[sitlet]

well i actually do have the latest drivers for xp from sanyo. one is a driver to use it as a usb modem, and another is a driver for use with Sprint's connection software. but sprint's software doesnt do anything special, it just sets up a dial up connection to #777, which is what im doing already.

[offline]

Well it sounds the problem may lie with
this "data interface". Are you sure the sanyo
drivers are not one and the same thing?

[glockjs]

www.howardforums.com

[sitlet]

thanks for the link, im gonna check that out in a minute..

i finally got the modem installed on COM1. but everytime i try to connect to it, i get an error 633, which says the modem is already in use. ive tried disabling just about everything in the device manager, but still cannot get this. i think my problem lies with the com ports. in device manager, there is no com ports listed anywhere. i actually went to add new hardware and it detected a com port, but gave an error 10: cannot start this device.

another thing i dont understand is, even when i disable and/or uninstall the current 56k modem (which normally uses COM3), i still cannot install this new usb modem onto com3. i think if i can get it to install on com3 it might solve the problem.

and about the data interface. when i first plugged in my phone it came up with this twice for some reason. but each time it says it cannot find any driver to install. so i just ingored it and installed the modem anyway. i disabled them but that didnt do anything. and if i uninstall them, they try to reinstall everytime i plug in the phone. i believe these are for if i wanted to sync my contacts with Outlook, which i dont need to do. i just want to use the phone as a modem. heres a pic to be more specific