Error: Could not open COM16

[Jesper Hertel]

Sometimes the program works fine with my phone (K750i, USB, see signature for details), and sometimes it cannot connect anymore, and then I have to restart the computer to get it to work again. This happens several times every day. This is the latest log file:

Logdatei MyPhoneExplorer
************************
Programmversion: 1.6.2
Datum: 2007-07-27


00:46:57.59 Setting Port: 16
00:46:57.59 Setting Baud: 921600
00:46:57.63 Avaiable Ports: COM3=Winachsf0; COM13=\Device\k750mdm0; COM14=\Device\k750mdm1; COM15=\Device\k750obex0; COM16=\Device\k750mgmt0;
00:46:58.01 frmSplash geladen
00:46:58.92 Hauptfenster wird geladen
00:46:59.29 Sidebar fertig geladen
00:46:59.34 Farbschema wurde gelesen
00:46:59.85 UC SMS wird geladen
00:47:00.00 UC Phonebook wird geladen
00:47:00.04 UC Phonebook fertig geladen
00:47:00.04 UC Calls wird geladen
00:47:00.18 UC Organizer wird geladen
00:47:00.42 DoItemUpdate
00:47:00.45 DoItemUpdate fertig
00:47:01.18 UC Notes wird geladen
00:47:01.20 UC Calls wird geladen
00:47:01.35 Avaiable Ports: COM3=Winachsf0; COM13=\Device\k750mdm0; COM14=\Device\k750mdm1; COM15=\Device\k750obex0; COM16=\Device\k750mgmt0;
00:47:01.35 Kompatibilitätsmodus aktiviert !
00:47:01.35 Neue COM-Bibliothek wird verwendet
00:47:01.35 ErrMsg: Kunne ikke åbne COM16
00:47:03.73 Setting Lastuser: Sony Ericsson K750 [356551009177058]
00:47:03.76 Lade Userdatenbank: Sony Ericsson K750 [356551009177058]
00:47:03.76 GMT Einstellungen geladen
00:47:03.76 InfoSMS geladen
00:47:03.76 Notizeintrag gesetzt
00:47:03.95 Kontakte geladen
00:47:04.17 DoItemUpdate
00:47:04.25 DoItemUpdate fertig
00:47:04.32 Organizer geladen
00:47:04.32 Notizen geladen
00:47:04.43 SMS - Datenbank wird geladen...
00:47:04.53 SMS Laden - Readfile: 78 Split: 0 Parse: 94 HandleMultiSMS: 0 Nachrichten: 63
00:47:04.62 SMS Archiv laden - Parse: 93
00:47:04.73 SMS geladen
00:47:04.92 Anrufe geladen
00:47:05.56 Hauptfenster fertig geladen

The program have found COM16 automatically and also finds it when using the internal "Search device" function. But in the Port dropdown box in Settings, it just says "COM16" and not "COM16 - K750 USB Port" as the FAQ says it should. I cannot find anything in the FAQ saying what I should do if it doesn't. And after restarting everything works fine for a while using COM16 - until it doesn't work again...

Did I miss something?

[FJ]

Maybe you have problems with the cable or your drivers. Here you can find some pics how it should look like in the windows-device-manager. Its german but pictures say more than thousand words . Maybe it helps to fix the problem.

By the way: You use the wrong Port. COM13 and COM14 are the correct ports. If you cannot access them then i think another app blocks this ports.

[Jesper Hertel]

Maybe you have problems with the cable or your drivers.

Hm, how can I tell that? When the phone is connected, the cable seems very stable - I can move the phone around without it getting disconnected.

Could it help uninstalling all Sony Ericsson software and drivers and install them again? I just installed them a week ago or so, from freshly downloaded files from the Sony Ericsson website, so the drivers should be up to date, I guess.

Here you can find some pics how it should look like in the windows-device-manager.

Thanks! But I cannot find those pictures...??

You use the wrong Port. COM13 and COM14 are the correct ports.

I tried using them just after restarting my computer.
"COM13 K750 USB-Port" gives an error: "Could not open COM13."
"COM14 K750 USB-Port" gives an error: "Could not open COM14."
"COM16" works fine as usual - well, until it doesn't, and I have to restart the computer again. Funny COM16 works so fine (until it doesn't ), when it is not the correct one... I will try uninstalling any Sony Ericsson software (although none of it should be running, except for the drivers of course).

I have just noticed that when MyPhoneExplorer cannot connect to my phone after a while (maybe after having disconnected the phone and reconnected it again), I can also see that MyPhoneExplorer keeps saying "Checking for new version" for ages at startup and therefore obviously cannot connect to the internet... At the same time my Internet Explorer (IE7) cannot connect to the internet either - it just says "Connecting..." and doesn't come any further. And when I try to restart the computer, it doesn't come any further than to the "Saving settings..." screen and I have to cut the power to be able to restart the computer. Just after restarting my computer, both MyPhoneExplorer and Internet Explorer works fine again. Could this have something to do with the COM port problem?

[FJ]

COM13,COM14 have to work. its not recommened to use the managment-port (on your PC its COM16). Uninstall the PC-Suite. Mostly the PC-Suite blocks the optimal Ports. If the drivers get lost while uninstalling - just install them again using the Windows Driver Wizard. You can find the driverfiles on the distributed CD from the phone.

The screenshot were made in the windows devicemanager. Controlpanel->System->Hardware->Device manager.

Its also possible that an aggressive firewall blocks the ports cause they are visible in the Computer as "Modem"

[Jesper Hertel]

Uninstall the PC-Suite. Mostly the PC-Suite blocks the optimal Ports.

I have now uninstalled the PC Suite, but still MyPhoneExplorer will only talk to my phone through COM16, and not COM13 or COM14...

Any ideas what other programs could be blocking COM13 or 14? Is there any way of examining it?

The screenshot were made in the windows devicemanager. Controlpanel->System->Hardware->Device manager.

I already guessed that - but what I meant was that I cannot find the attached screenshot in your posting... Am I getting blind?

Its also possible that an aggressive firewall blocks the ports cause they are visible in the Computer as "Modem"

Hm, I only use the Windows Firewall and no other firewall, and I haven't messed with the Windows Firewall...

[user_deleted]

Hi Jesper,

had a look into your signature and have seen your windows version is
MediaCenter Edition.
There are some known issues with this windows version and are still
discussed in german language here.

Please try to cancel the ehtray.exe task and then try to connect again to
COM-port 13 or 14. If this works correct, then stop autorun this task with
msconfig.

br ...

[Jesper Hertel]

Please try to cancel the ehtray.exe task and then try to connect again to
COM-port 13 or 14. If this works correct, then stop autorun this task with
msconfig.

Thanks for the suggestion! I killed ehtray.exe, but with no change - COM13 and COM14 still won't work, but COM16 works (right now) - just as before.

I will try picking up my German from school and read the topic you refer to...

[user_deleted]

So you have not to learn german ...
Just wanted to give a tip about MediaCenter Edition in this topic.

Another idea:
Is MS ActiveSync running on your system?

br ...

[Jesper Hertel]

Well, the German topic just mentioned what you had already mentioned, as far as my German allowed me to understand it

And I have not installed MS ActiveSync...

[user_deleted]

What a pity, would be to easy if this would be the problem!
By the way, as FJ wrote: Com13 or Com14 should be the better (and more stable) ports.

There MUST be a way!
Had (and still have) also a K750 and it worked like a dreammachine!

br ...

[Jesper Hertel]

Thanks for all your help...!

Hm, there must be something weird on my machine then... some piece of software that interacts with MyPhoneExplorer and/or the two "right" ports...

Anyway, I have turned off the autostart of ehtray.exe now, as it doesn't seem to give me anything I use.

Aha, I just tried closing MyPhoneExplorer, disconnecting the USB cable, reconnecting it in another USB port, and starting MyPhoneExplorer again. Then the mentioned behaviour occurs again - COM16 doesn't work anymore, and MyPhoneExplorer keeps checking for a new version for ages... and my Internet Explorer also doesn't work... So maybe I am now able to reproduce what triggers the "real" problem for me, which is that COM16 stops working. (For actually, using COM16 is no problem to me, as it works like a charm - when it works! ).

I'll try always using the same USB port on my computer (a laptop) and see if I can circumvent the problem in that way... perhaps... maybe... if I am lucky...

[Jesper Hertel]

Hm, it happened again, and this time I have for sure used the same USB port... MyPhoneExplorer can't connect to my phone, it can't check for updates, my IE7 doesn't work, and Google Earth doesn't work either - it gets stuck while "Performing Google Earth server login...". All three of them must be using the same library for connecting to the internet, and that library seems to get stuck...

I wish I knew more about the communication protocols in Windows so I could figure out what happens...

[FJ]

Enable the option "stable Connection" in MyPhoneExplorer. With this setting MyPhoneExplorer uses the API-Call "CreateFile" to open the port. It is handled by the kernel.dll which refers to the Modem.

[Jesper Hertel]

Wow, that worked! Now I am using "COM13 K750 USB-Port" and it communicates with my phone!

Hm, I wonder what features are deactivated now? Oops... I can see that the call monitor and display of incoming messages is deactivated now... I liked that so much...

Well, I will keep the new setting anyway for some time to see if that solves the problem so that I don't have to restart my computer several times a day... I guess that is more important than having the call monitor and display of incoming messages.

Heeeeyyy!!!!! Wow!!!!! I just tried turning the new setting off again to see if it had worked uninstalling the bunch (10-15) of unimportant programs I have just uninstalled from my computer. And it did! I can use the COM13 port now without having to enable the option "Stable connection"!!!!!!!

Hopefully that solves my other problem too! I'll keep my fingers crossed for the next three days!

Thanks for all the help!

[Jesper Hertel]

Now, if I had been just a little more foreseeing, I would have made a dump of my installed programs before I uninstalled that bunch of programs! That way I would have been able to give a list of what programs I uninstalled... which could have been helpful to others that maybe some time in the future experience the same problems that I did... Oh well, I'll just have to remember that the next time!

[Jesper Hertel]

I also disabled a few programs from starting with Windows, using the Startup programs list in the cool What's Running program:

[Jesper Hertel]

Hm, now I tried sending an SMS, forgetting the phone was not connected. Of course I got the message "Couldn't open COM13". But after connecting the cable to the phone, MyPhoneExplorer cannot connect to the phone again, neither through COM13 or COM14. But COM16 - the management port - works.

When I turn on "Stable connection", I get this error message (translated from Danish) trying to use COM13 (or COM14):

"Could not open COM13 [or COM14].
System error: 32 [The process could not access the file, as it is in use by another process]"

Does MyPhoneExplorer spawn any subprocesses that could be locking the port? If so, I could maybe kill that/those to have the port released... Is there any way to know which processes has which ports open?

[Jesper Hertel]

Now I tried killing a few scvhost.exe processes, as I had an idea one of them could be locking the port... And yes, after killing a few of them, MyPhoneExplorer managed to connect to my phone again through COM13.

(I also happened to kill an obviously important svchost.exe process, as the system suddenly told me that the system would be shut down within 60 seconds, with no possibility of cancelling it!)

Anyway, it looks like I am getting closer... the svchost.exe process seems to be able to lock the COM13 port... I guess...

Ah, the CMD command

• tasklist /svc

can give a list of services associated with the processes, like this:

Code: Alles auswählen

svchost.exe                  880 DcomLaunch, TermService                      
svchost.exe                  968 RpcSs                                        
svchost.exe                 1032 AudioSrv, CryptSvc, Dhcp, dmserver, ERSvc,   
                                 EventSystem, FastUserSwitchingCompatibility, 
                                 helpsvc, HidServ, Irmon, lanmanserver,       
                                 lanmanworkstation, Netman, Nla, RasMan,      
                                 Schedule, seclogon, SENS, SharedAccess,      
                                 ShellHWDetection, srservice, TapiSrv,        
                                 Themes, TrkWks, w32time, winmgmt, wscsvc,    
                                 wuauserv, WZCSVC                             
svchost.exe                 1084 WudfSvc                                      
svchost.exe                 1168 Dnscache                                     
svchost.exe                 1204 LmHosts, RemoteRegistry, WebClient           
svchost.exe                 2280 SSDPSRV                                      
svchost.exe                 2292 stisvc

Maybe I can use that...

[FJ]

If you get a message that the process is blocked:
Download "ProcessExplorer" and take a look which process has the file "\Device\k750mdm0" opened.

[Jesper Hertel]

Ahh, cool! That was the tool I was looking for. Thanks!

But right now, MyPhoneExplorer again won't talk to my phone, and says this when I try to connect (using "Stable connection"):

• COM13 could not be opened.
  The port does not exist.

(translated from Danish). It says the same with COM16.

And when I search in Process Explorer for handles or DLLs containing "k750", no ports show up as being in use. So a blocked port doesn't seem to be the problem right now.

And again, MyPhoneExplorer says "Checking for new version" without getting anywhere... and neither IE7 nor Google Earth can connect to the internet... Firefox and Opera both work fine as usual, though - I guess they must connect to the internet through other channels that are not blocked.

So, my problem has not been solved... I can use COM13 now, i.e. the right COM-port, after uninstalling a bunch of programs. But still after some time, MyPhoneExplorer cannot connect anymore to my phone or to the internet, and I have to restart my computer.

Weird!