[Administrator]

@kaboondy wrote:

Thank you.

I did go into BIOS and disable both the ports and then in Device Manager I reassigned the port numbers to each of the COMs to a higher port number. And it did free up the lower COM ports 1, 2, and 3 as well as the IRQ but I was not able to manually force the computer to select the lower IRQ’s for the Fax Modem.

It is curious that despite being disabled in the BIOS the “communication Ports” still show in Device Manager implying that they are still “active”. I had assumed the COM1 and COM2 must be referring to some other devices rather than the physical, external harware Serial Ports on the computer which I had disabled.

I will reverse the changes and report back. Thanks again.

It shouldn’t matter if the communication ports are listed the Device Manager in Windows after being disabled in the BIOS. However, you can try a Scan for Hardware changes option to see if the Device Manager updates and removes the two Communication Port listings (Right click the computer-name in Device Manager and click Scan for Hardware Changes, or click the Scan for Hardware changes icon.)

I mentioned earlier that the BIOS settings can allocate specific IRQs to specific PCI slots in your computer. This is why many modem manufacturers technical support suggest you change the slot when you have problems with a fax modem (its easier than playing around with BIOS settings to force a different IRQ)

[kaboondy]

It has taken quite some time to review and redo all the suggestions again for WinFax. I did finally accomplish my objective and for the past 10 days the program has not become “frozen”.

Ultimately what ended up working was removing the Fax Modem from the computer, uninstalling the hardware from the control panel (as well as using the Add/Remove Hardware to remove the residual signature of the modem). I then installed the Fax Modem into a different physical slot in the computer and left all default settings intact. In other words, I did not change the COM setting or the IRQ. Nor did I change anything in WinFax Modem and communications settings.

So far this has worked and I hope this long winded route might help the next person as well.

Thank you for all your support and advice during this challenging issue. 😀 😀

[Administrator]

glad to hear that is working now.
after changing the slot, what is the IRQ setting for the modem? It is a lower IRQ? (< 16?)

[kaboondy]

Amazingly the COM is COM3 and the IRQ remains at 21. However, it has been 3 weeks (or so) and there has not been a single crash of WinFax so far. This is a major change from 2 – 3 times per day.

I want to thank you for all the support with this challenging issue.

[Administrator]

Good to hear. Guess it was a hardware compatibility problem.

[Author]

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