[NTLUG:Discuss] "Sorry, the modem is busy"

[WIlliam Justice]

I recently upgraded to RH 6.0, and I keep getting this message telling me my modem is busy.  It's a US Robotics 56K Faxmodem (not winmodem), configured under Windows to COM4, IRQ 3.

When I query the modem under KPPP, I get the annoying "Sorry, the modem is busy" message.  When I try to dial using Minicom,  a message box appears telling me I'm already online and that I need to hang up first.  If I follow its instructions (hang up and try again), I get the same message. 

After scouring newsgroups and HOWTOs, the only thing I thought I hadn't tried was:

setserial ttyS3 irq 3 port 0x2e8

which (again) tells me the modem is busy.  I'm pretty confident saying that under these circumstances, the modem is NOT busy.  After thouroughly checking all my hardware, I'm certain that nothing else is using IRQ 3.  The only other COM port I'm using is COM1 (mouse), IRQ 4.

What am I overlooking?

TIA,
William M. Justice