weird medical software question

Hi all,
Thanks in advance for being the place that has saved my equipment (and other things) several times over the years.
Now I feel like Dorothy in the Wiz of Oz, "I dont know if there's anything in that black bag for me...."
I am doing a PhD in integrative medicine and my dissertation is on the BioMeridian Machine http://www.biomeridian.com/products.htm which measures ,among other things, galvanic skin response and electrical impedence in acupuncture meridians. The unit (separate from the laptop)contains the sonic signatures of 120K remedies, pharmaceutical, homeopathic,nutritional, etc. and outputs that stuff to the patient , reading the response via a probe that I use touches the patient and is read via the COM port of the laptop.
The unit also uses the laptop to record the impulses and extrapolate the data.

My keyboard died and I transfered the software and data to a laptop that someone gave me. i didnt have the discs from this used machine so I just cleaned it up and loaded the software.

The software transferred well but the BioMeridian uses the COM port to access info from the patient (the probe puts out a tiny electrical impulse into the acupuncture meridian of the Pt. and the unit reads the feedback, almost like sonar, and records to the laptop a normal or hightened or stressed response versus a diminished or fatigued response.
then the software in the laptop correlates all the data to a chart showing a meridian pattern that can be balanced or treated.

and the COM port is not reading from the probe.
zilch.
and the person is not dead.
I know this for sure.You may question my ability to know this due to my obviously hyperverbal academic mind, but I'm on coffee at the moment and am ususally OK. really.

The BioMeridian tech folks tell me I have to remove anything using the COM port that doesnt belong there.
This laptop is dedicated to the research tools, eg there is no Palm or external device using it.
So, the big question, that is probably not big to you but I have 19 months of research on this laptop and cannot afford to screw up this data:
When I go into the list of what has access to the COM port how can I tell what to safely remove?
thanks,
L

 

You may have a modem on COM1….to change
Start - enter
Settings - enter
Control Panel - enter
System – enter

New window with System Properties, click on Hardware, click on Device Manager
Click on the + Ports (COM & LPT)
On Communications Port (COM1) right click on properties,
Left click on “scan for hardware changes”

You probably have the modem on COM1, and can change it to COM3…..hope this helps……wobbles

 

Hi wobbles,
thanks for having the patience to read this whole thing and respond-- huge gratitiude to you.
I will try your suggestion. I noticed a bunch of stuff when I looked at what had access to the com ports-- looking like the person who had this laptop was a major gamer and wondering what all the stuff was and what I could remove.
I'll let you know.
thanks again.
L