Dolomite, formatting your hard drive is a pretty drastic step to take. It sounds like you have a US Robotics Sportster. I have always found 2 things with hardware that I buy for my PCs.
1) the driver that they ship with the hardware rarely works. Immediately download the latest driver for your hardware when you buy it.
2) You can rarely find a reference to the product based on its product number or any identifying marks on the hardware. You need the box, which most of us throw out immediately after buying it.
I usually use the Device Manager to install drivers when this kind of thing happens. If you go to Control Panel, System, Device Manager, there should be a ? under Other. If you select that device, and check Properties, you should be able to install a new or upgrade the driver. Because this is a WinModem, you will need exactly the right driver. That means it must be for your product and your OS. I didn't see where you said what OS you were using, but it seems like it is 9x or ME. If it is XP, I'd just say good luck!
At this point, you should be able to point the system to the exact driver that you want to install. Don't accept any of the "I'll find it for you" crap from your machine. Get the driver that you think will work, and select exactly that driver.
You may be able to find some drivers at
or
On these sites, you may be able to find something based on the information that you have, not what USR/3Com have expected of you.
Also, I am curious how you know that the modem is on COM2 if you can't install the driver. If it truly is, you will have to disable COM2 in your BIOS. You can do this by entering your BIOS during boot up and disabling the serial port that is using IRQ 3, Address 3E8.
pansophic