[pchelpers] COM port disappeared

Murphy decided to make my Acer TravelMate 230XC XP laptop's COM 3 port 
disappear just when i urgently need a traditional modem (because i'm away from 
home for a while). I didn't notice any problem at home, where i use ADSL. There 
are no COM ports listed in device manager (only LPT) and not even in the BIOS, 
but apparently COM ports aren't always in the BIOS anyhow, and i don't remember 
if it used to be when it still worked. 

Trying to reinstall the internal modem and even a wireless PCMCIA card didn't 
work.
When i tried to add a COM port using the Add Hardware Wizard, i got a useless, 
unconfigured COM 6 port. Any ideas?

Thanks in advance


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