ERRORMSG: Error occured opening comms: Access is denied

ERRORMSG: Error occurred opening comms, Access is denied.

Last reviewed: Sept 27, 2006
Article ID: 060927sab

The information in this article applies to:

Pronto for Windows all versions.

Symptoms

Pronto for Windows produces the error message when starting Playback or opening the Control Panel.

Error occurred opening comms: Access is denied.

Cause

This is usually due to the specified serial port being in use by another process running on the machine.

Resolution

Check each running process to ensure that the port has not be opened by it. Bear in mind that a process may be running in the background or on a Windows 2000 / XP machine running under a another logged in user.
The following application is known to frequently cause this problem.

Microsoft ActiveSync.

This runs in the background when a PDA or Mobile phone is not connected.
To check if it has reserved the port:
1) Double click on its icon in the tool tray area of the Taskbar, and active sync will open.
2) From the FILE menu select the item CONNECTION SETTINGS.
3) On the Connection settings dialog, if the Allow connections to one of the following checkbox is set, check which port is listed.

Other applications:

Quickbooks.
Fax or modem software.

References

none.

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