Michael,

I have an old HP scanner whose legacy SCSI adapter card causes the same behavior in Windows 95.  I have been running with the extra, conflicting COM port for several years without any problems.  Installation/removal of modems, sound cards and the like have not resulted in any further conflicts.  Therefore, if your system functions satisfactorily with this "extra" COM port and you can resist the effort to "fix" the conflict, I recommend that you accept this Windows 95 hiccup, consider yourself lucky that things, for the time being, are working OK and wait for the time when they are not, because you know that time is coming!

Steve Polatas

>Date:    Tue, 24 Nov 1998 15:59:14 -0500
>From:    Michael Tabak <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Plug-n-Play - Spurious COM Port Detection Problem
>
>I installed a newer CD-ROM (to replace an old one) plus a CD-RW in my
>computer, both attached to the secondary hard drive controller.
>
>Windows 95's Plug-n-Play had a great deal of difficulty dealing with this.
>I finally got both to work, but in the process, Plug-n-Play had erroneously
>determined that I had extra floppy drives and ports -- which I don't have.
>I removed the extras from Control Panel - System - Hardware.
>
>However, Plug-n-Play now insists on redetecting and reinstalling an extra
>COM port, no matter how many times I remove it.
>
>I actually have COM1 functioning, and I've got an internal fax/modem that
>I've assigned COM2.  I had previously disabled the original physical COM2
>from my BIOS so that the fax/modem would work (and the original COM2 is
>still disabled in the BIOS).
>
>But Windows 95 insists not only on showing the COM1, but also showing an
>extra COM port which is not assigned a number, but which gets the yellow
>exclamation point for conflicting with the fax/modem.
>
>I've tried removing "both" COM ports (COM1 and the extra one) and the
>fax/modem from Control Panel -- Hardware, but Windows 95 detects them all
>again.
>
>How can I get rid of this extra detected COM port?  (Or is it safe to
>proceed with the extra one designated as disabled?)  Thanks.
>
>
>Regards - Michael Tabak ** [log in to unmask] 

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