W2K or XP?Problems with infrared port

I have two laptops. One runs W2K, the other XP. The easiest (?) way for me to transfer large amounts of data between them is via infrared ports. I discovered by accident that when I put them next to each other, they start making these purring noises (you know like...boy meets girl, or rather cat meets cat.. ) and recognise another via infrared port nearby.

However, this occassional recognition often does not last long. The W2K seems to stop signalling its presence quite spuriously, despite showing the infrared icon in the toolbar (I know it is the W2K machine because when I put my iPAQ next to both laptops, it recognises the XP machine as transmitting, but not the W2K). I think I read somewhere (?) that there is a bug in W2K with the infrared port transmission. Is that true? and if so, if I reinstall XP over it, will the two laptops form 'a more lasting relationship'?

Any suggestions/advice as to how to solve this problem would be much appreciated (If I can avoid overwriting the OS, all the better!)

Many thanks in advance

PS: I don't think it is a hardware problem since the two laptops do sometimes bridge the link long enough to transmit some files accross between each other...[