Thanks for the idea. I found that Device Manager showed a Standard 19200 baud modem was using COM1:. I first disabled it then uninstalled it (including re-boots) but this made no difference.
Finally uninstalled the COM1: device, re-booted (which found the 'new' device and installed it) and all is now working.
I cannot access the serial port, COM1:. I used to be able to but now any app, such as Hyperterminal, that tries to open COM1: puts up a small info window that says "Unable to open COM1. Please check your port settings."
Any idea what might be causing this?
According to Device Manager the port is working correctly.
I'm wondering if another auto started app that I don't know about has opened the port. Is there any way to find out what apps have opened the serial ports on the PC?
I'm running Win XP home with all service packs and updates.
Thanks for all the ideas and comments everyone. Have tried a few of them but to no avail yet. Tried Microsofts Q831430 methods to reregister jscript.dll and vbscript.dll. This worked without a hitch from my administrator account but failed from my user account even when I changed its type from limited to admin. Error msg was "DllRegisterServer in jscript.dll failed. Return code was: 80004005". same for vbscript.dll. searched microsoft's kb but could not find any explanation of 80004005. Then looked at the registry (method 2 in Q831430) and found the keys were as they should be. My problem still persisted.
Ran sfc, It finished without reporting anything. (although I left it running while I went for lunch - could have missed an error dialog if one auto closed after some time).
Could do a full repair but have lost XP release disks that came with my dell box. Think I lent them to someone!!
Tried creating a new user account. Now explorer still gives me a blue pane but with the doggy animation!
So all in all I still have the problem. My guess is it's a registry problem. Anyone know a good registry cleaner?
Hi everyone, When I click the Search button in windows explorer the folders pane (on the left) is replaced with the search pane. This has a title bar "Search companion" at the top with a close pane 'x' button on the right (which works). Saddly that's all I get. The rest of the pane (underneath the title bar) is a plain blue colour with none of the search options, buttons, text entry boxes. Nothing, just the blue.
HOWEVER, if I log in to my 'administrator' account then the search pane comes up as normal. My normal user account is a limited account.
I guess something has got messed in the registry. Can anyone help sort this niggleing problem out. It would be much appreciated, I'd love to be able to search my own disk again!
