I recently had to change the configuration of a workstation: The ISA expansion card holding 2 DB-9 serial ports went bad. One of these ports was used for the serial connection to the HP3000. I removed the card, removed all the COM ports in Windows Device Manager, and re-started the computer. Windows successfully detected the remaining 2 COM ports (one built-in DB-9 serial port and 1 modem connection). COM1 is the DB-9 serial port and it is now used on that workstation for the serial connection to the HP3000. COM2, of course, is the modem. All seemed well until the next day (yesterday). When Reflections was started (It is now set-up to initialize COM1 at 9600 baud) it shows an error message, "The selected port is already open or in use by another program". My workaround to this was to AGAIN remove the COM port and re-start Windows. Windows detects the COM port, and then Reflections starts with no problems (no more error message). Is there a permanent fix to this, so that I no longer have to remove COM1 and restart every morning? What could be causing the COM1 port to be "already open"? I tried Ctrl+Alt+Del and closing all open programs except Systray and Explorer. Help!!! Michael T. Adams Network Administrator DuPont Beaumont Federal Credit Union [log in to unmask]