Ibm workpad sync & port issues help!

everytime i try to do a hotsync operation i get a couple of error messages. my workpad tells me-the connection between your handheld computer and the desktop could not be established. please check your setup and try again. when i look at the log it says- never synchronized. then my desktop hotsync manager says- the selected port,com 1, is not available at this time, hotsync manager will open the port when it becomes available. now i went to the hotsync help and followed the help steps, but it didn't do anything to fix those issues. i was told i had to download a driver to my desktop to get my workpad to work with my desktop. however i cannot seem to find that driver anywhere, and i thought the driver i needed for that was with the palm desktop software i downloaded from the palm site. can anyone help me so i can use my workpad with my desktop? one thing to keep in mind is that while i am very computer smart, i know absolutly nothing about pda's.