Dell Inspiron 1520 ports

Inspiron 1520, XP sp3. HD died. Installed new WD drive and am trying to restore programs, etc. All seems okay except computer doesn't 'see' my Palm Vx. Pre-crash used a USB to serial connector between Dell and Palm. Not sure if I have one problem or two?

Device manager didn't show any "Ports". Found keyboard is on IRQ1; Mouse IRQ 12; Modem COM3.

Palm setup (local) says : "The selected port, COM 1, is not available at this time." The serial port menu box is empty.

* How can one tell what ports exist, and are in use, by the laptop?
* How can one change ports (is this advisable?)?
* How does the Palm program, or user, select or change ports?

Thanks.

 

you can view open ports from the command prompt by typing netstat -a