Enable COM Port 1?

Question

I am trying to hook up an external modem (my cell phone actually) to COM port 1. Before I even get to that point though there is no port shown to chose from. "All ports" is greyed out. "Selected ports" is enabled but "next" is greyed out so I can not proceed. To get to this point I went to, Control Panel>Phone & Modem Options>Modems>Add

The laptop is an Inspiron 2500 on Windows 2000. As info by the way, I was able to hook this same cable and modem (cell phone) to my old Dell laptop (Win 98) a few minutes ago so I know that there is no equipment issue in that respect.

Any Ideas?

Thanks!

...Scott

pwfb · Answer

Tony,

Thanks! On boot I did do the F2 (check set up) and all appeared okay.

Interestinly enough I do use my Palm Pilot on this serial port (obviously I disconnect it before trying to install the modem/cable or enable the COM port) and it works fine.

Is there somewhere else besides F2 on set up that I should check the bios?

Thanks, Scott

tonydi · Answer

Scott... I don't have a 2500, but I'll take a stab anyway. Check to see if the port is disabled in the BIOS and that's why Windows doesn't see it.

Suzanne · Answer

Scott,

Windows 2000 does not support mapping to a virtual Com port which is what is most likely that you are trying to do. There are 3rd party programs that other users have reported success with. Many of those discussions can be found in the Portable Peripheral forums. See the following document for further information:

Windows 2000 Does Not Support Mapping Virtual COM Ports to Infrared Ports (Q252795)

lcromartie · Answer

Does Windows XP support this?  I am having problems downloading Palm so that I can hot sync and they tell me that the problem is that I 'don't have a COM 1 Port'.

Locked Topics – Laptops General

Enable COM Port 1?

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