modem okay, COM ports missing

[Andrew Brydon]

Brand new WinXP notebook, but not yet working fully:

The modem (Surflink 56k) is showing working fine in the Device Manager,
Modem properties, diagnostics, giving out an apparently full list of
ATI code responses.

However, although it shows using COM3, there are no COM ports listed
in the Ports section of the Device Manager.

There are no "unknown devices" anywhere.

HELP? TIA.

 

[D.Currie]

Brand new WinXP notebook, but not yet working fully:

The modem (Surflink 56k) is showing working fine in the Device Manager,
Modem properties, diagnostics, giving out an apparently full list of
ATI code responses.

However, although it shows using COM3, there are no COM ports listed
in the Ports section of the Device Manager.

There are no "unknown devices" anywhere.

HELP? TIA.

Help with what? You said the modem works, so what's the problem?

The ports that would normally show in the device manager are the physical
com ports. Does you laptop actually have any serial ports? Many don't. The
modem's port normally doesn't appear there, and if you "force" com 3 to show
there, the modem wouldn't be able to use it any more as that com port would
be assigned to a physical port (whether it exists or not) and thus not
available to the modem.

If the laptop does have a serial port, it might not be enabled. But do you
have a serial device you need to plug in? If not, no sense in enabling
hardware you're not going to use.

 

[Andrew Brydon]

Help with what? You said the modem works, so what's the problem?

Ah - sorry: it "works" but seems unusable. It can't create dial-up
connections. The wizard shows the dial-up option greyed-out.
The trouble-shooter recommends using the Device Manager to enable the
COM port - but it doesn't appear, as described above.

 

[D.Currie]

Ah - sorry: it "works" but seems unusable. It can't create dial-up
connections. The wizard shows the dial-up option greyed-out.
The trouble-shooter recommends using the Device Manager to enable the
COM port - but it doesn't appear, as described above.

The troubleshooter seems to have an error, as the com port for a modem
doesn't normally show up under "ports" in the device manager.

Next question would be what wizard you're talking about.

And have you installed the correct drivers?

 

[Andrew Brydon]

The troubleshooter seems to have an error, as the com port for a modem
doesn't normally show up under "ports" in the device manager.
Next question would be what wizard you're talking about.

The "Create a Dial Up Connection" wizard.
Solved now: the solution appears to be in Knowledge Base item Q329441.