Can I Reassign My USB to Serial Converter to COM 4 or Less on Windows XP?

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Jobrag
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I have a Prolific USB Serial Convertor which has been assigned COM 6. When connected to a device that allows 6 serial ports it works fine. I'm now trying to communicate with a device that only allows up to COM 4, how do I reassign the USB converter to COM 4 or less?
I'm running WINDOWS XP 2002 on a DELL laptop.
 
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If you're like me and you had COM ports being enumerated starting in the double digits, the following can be used to reset the enumeration (WARNING: requires registry modification):
http://www.bisque.com/sc/forums/p/446/430.aspx

Or you can just manually do it, as per the post above me.
 
Thanks guys I now have an additional problem, the ports 1 to 5 are all described as being used, how do I identify what is using the port so that I can decide which one to change?
 
If you open up the Device Manager (accessible through the Control Panel), expand the Ports section (click on the '+' sign), and then plug in your USB-serial converter, you should be able to see it get auto-detected (you may have to hit refresh).
 
Have you upgrade windows xp to service pack 3 ?. It may be solve your problem.