printer ports

[rundll69]

a friend of mine upgraded win98 to winXP pro (against my advice) & is now having some problems -- I was able to resolve most everything except the printer port he is using -- it is a port on a 3com router/switch combo... I have tried to add the port in printer properties but it will not add it... also there are 2 ports in the list of ports that did not convert properly when he did the upgrade... does anybody know how to delete these ports in winXP or have some advice thanks

[Eagle PC Diagnostech]

To delete the ports:
Go into the printer properties/ports then delete the ports
Or File/Server Properties/Ports

[rundll69]

thanks for the reply -- I should have put in my original post that I have tried the regular methods to deleting these ports... when I try to delete them a window pops up stating the port cannot be deleted.. thanks

[NooNoo]

Can you clarify what these extra ports are?

Are you saying that the printer is hooked up to a router?

[rundll69]

the printer is connected to a router -- it is a 3com 3C510 broadband router with built in printer port -- when software is installed you can create a "PRmate" port so all the PCs connected to the router can share the printer -- the problem is that I cannot create the "PRmate" port & there are 2 ports that have just garbled text for the description & I cannot delete them.. thanks for any help...

[NooNoo]

The product is discontinued, there does not appear to be a software update for 2k or XP.... the download page is here - the product pages are here

[Gollo]

I'm not sure about the 3com but on my dlink 704p I could create a local port and then I input the ip addie of the router and made one small change (I forget what right now). Maybe there is an option similar (this was/is the workaround for 2k/xp).

[rundll69]

OK tried adding IP address as port -- that did not work -- also I tried loading the software out of the "NT" folder on the CD on 2 other PCs running winXP & the software loaded fine & I was able to configure the "PRTmate" port in the port listings -- I think the problem still is I cannot delete the 2 corrupted ports -- does anybody know how to manually delete these corrupted ports when the delete port button says you cannot delete this port ???

thanks

[NooNoo]

safe mode... or if you are feeling adventurous.... back up the reg and pull them out of the hardware key.

[rundll69]

OK tried safe mode -- could not delete port because the spooler was not running -- will try the registry if I can have some direction as to where to find the ports in the registry thanks

[NooNoo]

do a search for the name of the port in the registry.

[gazzak]

Often a port cannot be deleted because windows thinks it's being used by another printer. Do you have any other printers set up that could be inadvertantly using the ports?

[rundll69]

No other printer connected to the port. The problem that I am having deleting it is that it is not a recoginized port by the OS -- It is just garbled text that I believe was the "router" port that did not convert correctly when he did the winXP upgrade..