Communication port is invalid or busy

[[email protected]]

Please help!!!

My dad's computer has MS ME operating system. Out of the
blue and for no apparent reason he gets this message when
trying to access AOL: "Communication port is invalid or
busy".

He took his computer to a local computer shop. The modem
worked fine there - no problems. He brought home a new
dial up telephone cable. Note that his telephone works
fine when plugged into the phone outlet that he is using
also. So, all hardware involved checks out.

He has the serial keys option off. He is pointing the
modem to the same COM port he has always used. Any
ideas? We would greatly appreciate any help with this.

[Noel Paton]

Did the shop try to use AOL, or just the normal DUN connectiod? - the AOL
one is totally different, and connections can fail with that, while
succeeding with the Windows DUN.

Depending on the version of AOL, try this
Close AOL
Open AOL's System Information - r-click on the AOL icon in the System tray
(bottom right of the screen), and select System Information....
Click on the Utilities tab
Click on the 'Uninstall AOL Adaptor' button
When that says OK - reboot

After the reboot, open AOL, and it should reinstall the Adaptor, and ask for
another reboot
Do that, and then see what happens when you open AOL again - it should find
the modem properly this time.

HTH

--
Noel Paton (MS-MVP 2002-2004, Win9x)

Nil Carborundum Illegitemi
http://www.btinternet.com/~winnoel/millsrpch.htm

Please read http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm on how to post messages to NG's
or
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2001/Mar01/Mar27pmvp.asp

" > wrote in
message ...
> Please help!!!
>
> My dad's computer has MS ME operating system. Out of the
> blue and for no apparent reason he gets this message when
> trying to access AOL: "Communication port is invalid or
> busy".
>
> He took his computer to a local computer shop. The modem
> worked fine there - no problems. He brought home a new
> dial up telephone cable. Note that his telephone works
> fine when plugged into the phone outlet that he is using
> also. So, all hardware involved checks out.
>
> He has the serial keys option off. He is pointing the
> modem to the same COM port he has always used. Any
> ideas? We would greatly appreciate any help with this.