COM Port Not Available Until Disable/Enable

[Fletch12]

I have a Windows 2000 based PC with two COM ports. I have recently connected a scanner to COM1 where nothing was connected prior. However, COM1 is only available when I disable it through the Device Mgr, reboot the PC, and then enable the port. Everything works fine then, until I have to reboot again, or if the application utilizing the port remains idle for a while. I guess I need to figure out what is using or tying up this port, but I don't know how best to do that. As far as I know nothing has ever been connected to COM1 of this PC. We have a touchscreen monitor that uses COM2 and it works fine. I am at a loss as to what to look for and would appreciate any help. Thanks,

 

[smah]

When I see something about a com port not working/not available, my first thought is alwas Palm's HotSync software. By default it grabs the first Com port (even if you sync via USB). Might you have that running?

 

[Fletch12]

No, this is a PC on our shop floor and is not running any Palm software.

 

[Lemon13]

check for a irq/memory conflict, com1 normally uses irq4 with variable memory adresses.

 

[bcastner]

Do you have the UPS service running?
Check Administrative Tools, Services.