🚀 go-pugleaf

I few months ago I bought a modem to get 'online'.  I bought a
Motorola 28.8 External modem, and also bought a new IO card with 16550
UARTS so I could take full advantage of the speed of the modem.
The 1st IO card I bought was just a cheap (�20) generic one.  The COM
port I was using for the modem gave up after just a couple of weeks.
I then changed the swapped the com ports that the mouse and modem were
using (the com port still functioning OK for the mouse).  Soon after
doing this the other com port gave up, so I could ot use the modem at
all.  After talking to the suppliers of the IO card they suggested a
IO card with an on board BIOS may work better, so I bought a SIDE jr
Pro for �40, this worked fine for about 4 months, and then the whole
card gave up, IDE connections, COM ports and all.  I thought this was
just bad luck so decided to buy another IO card (with an on board
BIOS) this being the Promise DC2300.  Everything was fine again, for
about a week!, then as before the com port with modem gave up, this
time the mouse would not word in this com port, so I am now in the
sitn with only 1 working com port (which means I cant use my mouse,
when using the modem!), and I am not over confident about the other
com port lasting too long given the past history.

Has anybody any ideas as to why this has been happening????

The PC is a DX4/100, with VLB.  The BIOS is Award, and I am running
Win95. 
Please help!