Possibly this should be in the Diagnostics thread....

I have a generic usb obd cable. My laptop keeps wanting to assign com14 to it. If I try to change this in Device Manager it says com1 to com13 are in use. Com1 I could understand but not the others?

Any way of finding what's causing the other ports to show as in use? It's XP by the way.

:wonder:

Hi,

If you think the other ports arent being used I'd be inclined to ignore the 'ports in use' message and say assign it com 5 and give that a go!

Some applications create 'Virtual ports' etc and of course if you have Bluetooth that will also assign a com port.

Give it a go

I tried ignoring the 'in use' status, and much to surprise, it worked! Was able to get vcds. lite to talk to my car. Took me a while to realise the ignition has to be on though!