how do i allow use of a serial port using XP?

Question

attempting to connect to 3rd party equipment via the serial port and i can,t get the program to connect because XP won,t allow me to choose a com port

Answer 1

I would guess XP can't 'see' the Serial Port(s) (I assume your PC actually has Serial Ports ? a lot of PC's thee days only have USB).

Anyway - to check go via Start, Settings, Control Panel, Hardware, Device Manager.

Most likely the serial port(s) are disabled in the BIOS (check this at power-on time - usually it's F2 or F12 or DEL to get into the BIOS).