Once apon a time Randall Lane said, 'Re: Modem Problems' to Simon Byrnand...

 SB>  Well first I would suggest, avoid COM4 if you dont absolutely
 SB> have to use it. You're not using Win95 are you? Apparently it has
 SB> some problems with COM4, although I'm not sure of the details. Also

 RL> Seeing as I have two modems, one on com2 and one on com4, under Win95,
 RL> and have had so for a long time I would be interested to find out what
 RL> problems it has.

Well you are one of the lucky ones then. I've heard many instances of
problems with COM4 and Windows95, aparently its actually a problem with
the BIOS which only manifests itself with Win95, but I havn't been able
to pin anybody down on more technical details. I can assure you though,
the effect is real, I've seen a machine with a modem on COM4 with win3.11,
the owner upgraded to 95, and it just would *NOT* work on COM4.

On the other hand all the machines with modems on COM4 with Win95 I've
seen, except for that one machine, worked fine, so the problem is not
THAT common.

 SB> some Video cards can clash with the address range used by COM 4
 SB> when running in some modes.

 RL> Pardon?? Please explain.

Again, strange but true. Some time ago I was told that certain
SuperVGA cards when run in high res modes like 1024x768 in Win95
would somehow clash with COM4's I/O range. I cant quite see the
mechanism, but thats what I've been told by reliable sources..

 SB> Bottom line: _dont use COM4_

 RL> Top line don't make stupid statements!!

I'm sorry, but where have I made any stupid statements? In tracking
down a problem, you eliminate all possible causes one by one, until
the problem is found. Since COM4 trouble is a possible reason, even
if an unlikely one, I suggested avoiding it, while saying the problem
was probably elsewhere, but just in case...

Nothing stupid there!

Regards,
Simon

... My reality check just bounced.
--- FMail/386 0.98a