We have a Dell XPS with windows 98, and my son decided to get rid of some files. Well in the end, it wouldn't boot up. We tried booting from a floppy, from the CD, everything, tried reinstalling Windows, but by accident, ended up reformatting. We are using a 3 Com US Robotics Win Fax Modem. It use to be set on Com 2. When we reinstalled everything it is now on Com1 and says the system doesn't recognize the modem, or can't find it. I have loaded the drivers, but I want to know how to change it to the com2 port. It worked find until genious decided to delete files. I have tried everything I know to do. It just keeps telling me there is no modem installed. I have removed it, reinstalled it, reinstalled the drivers, and there are no conflicts in the System files. How do I change the port settings? Should I take the modem out, and put it back in, to see if windows will recognize it? Please help.

Remove the modem card (with power OFF of course), restart the machine, shut down, re-insert the modem, power back on.

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I doubt if this is the problem, but enter the bios setup routine and disable the com1 port (if it's enabled). It might be a conflict between the real com1 port and the port # assigned to the modem.

You can also go to Control Panel -> right click on the Modem (or phone and modem, can't remember)and then choose Properties. On the General tab you can change the port. There is also a modem diagnostic tab there to check if Windows can see it. You may have to close modem properties then reopen it to do the diags.

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Right click on 'my computer' and click 'properties'. Open 'device manager' and then 'ports'. What com ports show there?

If com1 is already disabled in cmos/bios setup then try enabling it. A PnP modem will create it's own com port and should not occupy one that already exists. Occasionally even a disabled port can cause problems. Also don't try manually creating a port from 'add new hardware' as that will only make the problem worse.

Before you reinstall the drivers, put your 98 cd in and browse to Drivers\Modem\3com-USR\Winmodem and run Wmregdel.exe. That will remove the registry references from the previous attempts at installing the drivers. Sometimes reinstalling over existing drivers can cause registry problems with some of those modems.

Some of the cheaper software modems also have to have a "phantom" port added (also via software). Had a Dell machine (200MHz MMX) which simply refused to acknowledge the *!#&-ing HSF modem until I figured out that it had drivers for the "synthetic" port (COM3) it was trying to attach to...

Wasted 3 more hours than necessary on it...