S&D thank you, i will give that a try, i had looked in my Device manager settings, but i think i was looking at USB/rather than other connections, on my laptop it is on COMs4 ??
Luckily for me, the replacement power lead has worked on the laptop so i am cutting again, but i want to make sure i am not in this situation again, trouble here is nothing supports XP anymore, so if i get new laptop, i will probably be in the same situation