USB56KEMH2 Fax Modem Windows 10 - COM5 doesn't show up in device manager

Networking, Serial, Bluetooth
1

Hi!
I just bought a USB56KEMH2 usb fax modem on Amazon to use in an application I’m going to start working on very shortly. I installed it on a Windows 10 machine with the correct (downloaded) drivers. The installation puts the fax mode on COM5.
On that port, it returns the data properly when queried on the diagnostic tab in Windows Device Manager. Unfortunately, it doesn’t show up in the list of installed ports in the “Ports (COM and LPT)” tab in Device Manager.
I discovered this after failing to connect to it on COM5 with Putty, the open source terminal emulator that is commonly used to provide direct communications to serial devices.
In this case, the device won’t be of any use to me because I won’t be able to open it up in any of the program languages that I hope to choose from. My plan was to issue AT voice commands to it directly but that doesn’t seem possible.
Can you explain why the USB56KEMH2 doesn’t show up in Device Manager’s list of COM ports? Is there any way around this? It seems like a flaw in the driver.

Regards,
BTfromWby

2

Hello @BTfromWby,

Thank you for taking the time to post on the StarTech.com community.

I apologize for the USB56KEMH2 driver troubles in Windows 10. COM port issues have come up for me before but we were able to find a resolution.

There are different drivers that can be applied for the USB56KEMH2 in Windows 10. For the COM port function the first step I would suggest is uninstalling and deleting the drivers that were installed. Then try with the drivers that are automatically installed by Windows 10. Check the version of the installed driver before proceeding.

  1. Open the Windows 10 Device Manager. (Win+x, m)
  2. Find the entry for the USB56KEMH2 in the Modems section
  3. Right click the USB modem entry
  4. Select Uninstall device
  5. Check the box to delete the driver software for this device when prompted
  6. Click Ok
  7. After the uninstall is complete, restart the computer

After the restart, compare the driver version to be sure that it has changed.

Now test your access to the COM port for the USB56KEMH2. Note that you may need to try those uninstall the drivers more than once.

Please let us know if these steps are helpful, and if the issues persist reply back here with some more details, including the driver versions.

Sincerely,

@DavidF