Dont worry people i sorted it.
I changed the com port in device manager to com3 and changed it in the flexistarter to com3 as well and now it works.
Weird that com1 stopped working without anyhting being changed. But i have a happy customer.
Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.
Oh also there were 2 old printers stuck in the deleting status so i got rid of them as well. not sure if they played a part in it all.
thanks again.