Port being used by another device?

[t.cruise]

I don't know anything about Palm Pilots. A friend the following to me, and
I'm stumped. Would someone please point me in the right direction. He
wrote:

"I bought a new Palm Pilot yesterday and when I hooked it up to do the
synchronization step, I got a message saying that the port I am using is
being used by another device and it wont sync."

 

[R. McCarty]

Palm Pilots connect via a Serial port. Most Computers have
one or two physical ports (Com1, Com2). If the PC has an
internal modem it will have it's own serial port. Depending on
how the computer BIOS is configured the Palm picked a port
to use that is already allocated by another device.
Most modern Palm Pilots have USB capability. Check with
your friend and see if his unit has a USB interface. If so, use
that and forget COM port configuration. 99% of the time you
twiddle with Com ports, you'll end up with no modem or some
other problem. If the Palm is an older model, you can still buy
a USB converter kit to avoid using a standard serial port ($30).

news:%[email protected]...

 

[t.cruise]

He Informed me that IT IS plugged into a USB port.

 

[R. McCarty]

Then you just open the HotSync applet and change the
connection mode from Serial (Com port) to USB. Then
it should open communications between the desktop &
the Palm.

He Informed me that IT IS plugged into a USB port.
--

T.C.
t__cruise@[NoSpam]hotmail.com
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Palm Pilots connect via a Serial port. Most Computers have
one or two physical ports (Com1, Com2). If the PC has an
internal modem it will have it's own serial port. Depending on
how the computer BIOS is configured the Palm picked a port
to use that is already allocated by another device.
Most modern Palm Pilots have USB capability. Check with
your friend and see if his unit has a USB interface. If so, use
that and forget COM port configuration. 99% of the time you
twiddle with Com ports, you'll end up with no modem or some
other problem. If the Palm is an older model, you can still buy
a USB converter kit to avoid using a standard serial port ($30).