Need COM Port Help installing Girder

[lubedude]

I've searched both the AVS & Girder forums, but could not find a solution to my problem.

System: PIII, WinME, IrMan installed on Com1, Girder 3.2, Theatertek ccf, Pronto Pro

Problem: I installed the new version of Girder & selected the IRMan Plugin and got a green light. I also shutdown the IRServer. Under settings, I've configured the plugin under my COM1 port (9600, 8, N, 1 xon/xoff).

Under status, I get an error message 'Plug-in loaded in memory, but hardware initialization failed." Of course, when I try my Pronto, nothing works.

Troubleshooting efforts: I shutdown Girder, started IRServer and pointed my remote at Irman and shot....nothing shown under history. I installed the Irman on my PII, Win98 basic setup (on Com2, same settings). Opened IR server, blasted away & everything captured under "History."

My guess the problem is with the COM1 port on my WinME machine, but I'm not sure how to fix it. In my BIOS, the only reference to COM is something called COM A....not sure what that means. In device manager, COM1 appears fine with no conflicts.

I've had this Pronto for nearly 2 months now & I'd love to get it working. Thanks in advance for any help from forum members.

I've posted this in the AVS forum as well to see if someone there may be able to help.

[lubedude]

There is nothing more satisfying than solving a problem all by yourself...after several hours of additional troubleshooting, I discovered that my problem was the result of having my IPAQ 3650 configured on my HTPC. Since I have a serial sync on my Work PC, this configuration essentially assigned this connection to COM1 and blocked the port (even though Device Manager showed no problems). When I removed the Activesync software, it freed up the port and it changed the designation to COM2. Now, everything works fine....I guess the lesson learned here is that if you are going to have an HTPC, don't have a bunch of extraneous software loaded on it.