Lost Com2 / Removed in Device Mgr

[Carol]

Computer is an old 486
===========Running windows 95
===========Modem is internal.. and will be ISA.. AS NO there are PCI slots
===========When running ADD NEW HARDWARE, OR MODEM..
THE CHOICE OF PORTS IS ONLY LPT1.......
THIS IS WHY I NEED COM 2 BACK
=======
Has an American Megatrends Bios.. from 1993.
When trying to release the resources from Com 2 for a modem install..by inactivating the Com
Com 2 was removed using Device Mgr..

The BIOS is being read to me.. and I cannot find
PERIPHERAL CONFIRGURATION
PORTS
SERIAL PORTS..

Nothing that would REACTIVATE COM 2 so it will show in the
hardware profile.. so we can install the modem.

Any ideas??

[RampageIII]

What OS are you running? Is the modem internal or external? Give as much info as you can.

On my Win98 machine Com2 is provided from software setup with modem.

[Explorer]

I'm assuming you are using an older ISA internal modem. They were assigned a com port by setting jumpers on the modem itself. Although there were a very few that were Plug and Play but they also needed a jumper setting to enable Plug and Play.

You don't incidentally, have to use COM 2. Most of these modems gave a choice, through jumpers, to use 1,2,3,4, or 5. 4 or 5 would likely be your best choice to avoid conflicts with other components.

Removing the COM port in Device Manager does not physically remove COM 2 that is in the motherboard. It has to be disabled in the BIOS so it can be used by the COM 2 port on the modem.

I'd try removing the modem, re-booting, and closely watch the screen as it reboots. The upper right corner will show installed memory and, if I recall correctly, the memory addresses for active COM ports directly below it. It varies amongst machines but it will be a number like 2E8 or 3F8, that kind of thing.

If you only see 1 COM port address, the second port on the motherboard is disabled. If you see 2 COM port addresses, both motherboard COM ports are active.

If you only saw one and re-installing the modem now shows 2 memory addresses, then the COM port on the modem card is being found.

The BIOS will have an option to enable and disable the on-board ports but it may be called something like Serial Configuration, etc. (COM ports are serial ports)

[Stat]

I also have had problems with some of these,

one time I had do it the cheating hard way.

I went to add hardware and sellected manually a com port, then reboot, then add another up to 5,

then install the physical modem and let it initialize in pnp if it has that capability. then see if it will pick up on one of the com ports if not then you can tell it which one to use. your choice, lol.

this is the I AM NOT GOING TO INSTALL anything else in my pc way and I don't care how rigged my pc is, lol.

as all the irqs will be taken up, lol.


PS, IT does work, but don't tell anybody I would rig a pc like that.

J/K!!!