serial USB problem...

Greetings,

After searching the KB extensively I can't find a solution to this
problem.....

Using XP Home on a laptop I've installed (sometime ago, and before I
installed XP-SP2) an IOGear USB<->serial adaptor. Intially it worked
perfectly.

However now I've tried to use it again and it appears that windows got
confused (or the driver, not sure which). And placed it at COM10 which isn't
compatible with the software I needed it for.

I attempted to move it to COM3 where it's supposed to be and that's when the
problems started. I did this by trying to disable the laptop's internal
modem because it appeared to be using COM3 now. It was disabled when the USB
adaptor was working but somewhere along the way it became enabled.

Then when I plugged the USB/serial adaptor in XP thought I was installing a
Motorola phone, first it recognizes a "USB Serial Controller" and then the
phone (Motorola V878-V690 Phone). I've tried several things, like letting it
install and then disabling it.... cancelling the install... installing then
uninstalling.

I've even tried installing the IOGear driver, but no luck.

So now it appears that the serial service has disappeared. But I've got a
"ATEN USB to USB Serial Cable" in the device manager with a yellow ! icon.
And a "USB Serial Controller" under modems with the '!' icon as well.

I've tried to figure out a way to clean things up so I could install the
driver "fresh". But haven't had any success..... Help! Please! I need to get
this working as soon as possible.

thanks in advance to All!
j