when you go in, you click on the com the modem is on, click on details and it says "Port already open" thats what I'm wondering 'cause if thats the case, its not that its not installed, but instead another device is interfering with it. Things like printers and scanners are notorious for this. May want to make check the com settings in the bios. Also, if it is installed, uninstall it and then try disabling com2 in DM, remove the modem from DM and reboot. I dont know about XP, but in win98 you can also remove the PCI bus and then on reboot it redects everything (best know your way around finding system files and .inf files because you'll probably have to path it out manually as windows will have problems many times finding it) and hopefully sort out any conflicts. Modems tend to have this problem, and even in DM will show no conflicts, but it still happens.
