Com Ports

I have an Optiplex GX270 with WinXP Pro.  I have installed Palm Desktop and use a USB cable to HotSync.  It uses com port 1, which happens to be the only com port showing in Device Manager.  Setup shows serial port one as com port 3 but since I use a USB cable, it doesn't help.

I need com port 1 available to configure routers.  We do several a day but the Palm software won't release the port, even if the cable is not plugged in.  I suppose I can end the process in Task Manager but what a nuisance since we configure 5 or 6 routers a day.

Is there a way to make another com port available so I can change the Palm setup to that port and have port 1  always available for routers?