Possible COMM port conflict and how to solve it? (1 Viewer)

[Ronald Epstein]

I have had my PDA plugged into my computer
via a USB cable. Every time I boot the
ActiveSync software starts up and automatically
syncs my PDA to the calendar/contact changes
I make on my computer.

All is well.

Now....

Yesterday I installed a piece of software
called DataPilot that allows me to
connect my cellphone to my computer via a
USB cable and sync my phone to my computer.
It's great for transferring and editing
phone and calendar information.

Now the problem....

Seems both devices (PDA and CELLPHONE) will
not work together. Now when I reboot my
computer I get some sort of conflict message
that ActiveSync (my PDA software) cannot start
up because another device is using that port
(something to that effect).

Can both devices ultimately be shared or
do I have to unplug one when using the other?

Thanks in advance for the help.

 

[Aaron Gould]

That seems odd. USB devices usually play well together, at least in my experience. The big thing with USB was to hook up several devices, and they'd "just work".

Do you have any other USB devices plugged in to your machine, aside from your PDA and cell phone?

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Lots.

* Card Reader
* MP3 Player
* Wireless Mouse/Keyboard transmitter
* PDA
* External Sound Card
* Router
* Scanner
* External Hard Drive

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

Get the exact text of the error message. As I tell my clients at work, they really are there for a reason and they really do contain specific information about your problem more often than not. "It said something like..." generally doesn't help much.

One thing you can do immediately is go into the options of one program or the other and disable the "load on start-up" or whatever it is that tells the program to start up automatically when the computer does. Part of what is going on may be that both programs are trying to access your calendar and other databases at the same time and therefore stepping on one another's toes. (This is much more likely to be a purely software problem than a hardware issue, given the nature of USB.) It may that you need to let one device update itself automatically, then manually update the second device after the first has finished.

Regards,

Joe

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Joseph,

Thanks for the help.

Could not be specific because I am
at work rather than being at my desktop
right now.

Will attempt to bring you EXACT error
message later today.

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

At work on a Sunday? That sucks. (At least it isn't next Sunday. )

Write down the error message, but also disable the auto-start on one of those programs and reboot. I'll be very surprised if that doesn't do it.

Joe

 

[DaveNel]

This may be a long shot but when you have everything hooked up go to your system settings and you may be able to change the settings if there is a conflict. that is what is sounds like..

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Gents,

Thanks for all your help.

I simply unplugged the phone data cable
and problem was solved.