PIC Driver won't release COM port

[Joe E. 259]

We configured the PIC driver on our maintenance computer and it has taken over the COM port. Even after deleting the PIC driver from RSLinx and rebooting, the COM port in Device Manager still shows it. How do we get rid of it? It won't let us use the COM port for anything else. Computer is running XP SP3

[Shiner 2]

Did you set it up for exclusive use on that computer? Is this part of a project involving an HMI (if you saved settings to runtime config the driver will be active in FactoryTalk) if so it needs to be removed from that configuration as well.

[Joe E. 259]

It was set up to take exclusive control, but the driver has been deleted from RSLinx. It is not used anywhere else. We just added it to try to connect to a PLC, then deleted it. I tried adding it back in without having it take exclusive control, but it wouldn't initialize (fatal error). When I restarted RSLinx, the driver wasn't there. Right now, RSLinx does not show the driver in its list, but Windows Device Manager shows it having control of the COM port. Nothing is physically plugged into the COM port.

[Shiner 2]

In device manager uninstall the com port, reboot, and try another application. By setting that up exclusively you have changed the defaults of the com port so it doeant want to be used by anything other than that driver, even though the driver is 'deleted' from rslinx. Really that just means it is inactive, not really deleted.

[Mickey 71]

A couple of things to try. Make sure RSLinx is not running as a service. Shut it down and try deleting the harmony file see txt below. Also as stated above delete the com port windows will add it on a restart. See link below http://www.plctalk.net/qanda/showpost.php?p=123994&postcount=11 harmonyfiledelete.txt

[Joe E. 259]

This appears to have worked. Is there any way to make the PIC driver unavailable to RSLinx? I would like to keep the guys from accidentally setting it up.