Not sure if this will help, but I happen to be sitting in front of the comptuer when p55 came out, same problem, so I wrote Ed. He quickly responeded and advised the below, while he fixed the problem, it worked,then minutes later p56 came out, and all was well again.
From: AmbientWeather.com [mailto:support@ambientweather.com]
Sent: Wednesday, January 28, 2009 5:04 PM
To: svcrews@mindspring.com
Subject: Re: VWS p55
I will fix this.
In the mean time:
1. Stop VWS
2. Delete the file c:\vws\setup\config6.bin
3 Restart VWS
4. Enter serial data logger
Ed
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Installed p56 ok, and ENT Comm 4 when it asked me for the Comm Port. Restarted, and all data populated, but Comm Port showed 1. Tried changing again, Restarted, NOGO. I fell back to my known stable p50 for fear Conflicts would start.
Also, MESONET D/L were hit/.miss. And when it showed there was a d/l of meso data, the map and table were blank.