Go figure indeed! I seem to remember that Dell uses proprietary hardware and maybe even software so perhaps that's the case with the serial port. Anyway, thanks for the response. Tom ** Message Separater ** >I recently saw a car tune-up hardware item work with an HP >notebook and then not work with a Dell notebook. The car >tune-up hardware connected via serial port and both notebooks >were running Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit. Manipulation of >the serial port's resources did not help with the Dell. The >serial ports were enabled in the BIOS and in Windows. Go >figure. Try it with a different laptop is a weak answer, but >may provide some insight.Chuck ========================= The list's FAQ's can be seen by sending an email to PCWorks-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with FAQ in the subject line. To unsubscribe, subscribe, set Digest or Vacation to on or off, go to //www.freelists.org/list/pcworks . You can also send an email to PCWorks-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with Unsubscribe in the subject line. Your member list settings can be found at //www.freelists.org/cgi-bin/lsg2.cgi/l=pcworks . Once logged in, you have access to numerous other email options. The list archives are located at //www.freelists.org/archives/pcworks/ . All email posted to the list will be placed there in the event anyone needs to look for previous posts. -zxdjhu-