Trouble installing a Due on a laptop with Win 7 Pro 64

Hello,

I recently received an Arduino Due as an xmas present and was trying to install the board driver on my laptop, however the laptop doesn't have any com/serial ports.
When I connect the board I can see the green LED for power and the amber LED is blinking (i.e. it's trying to talk) but the serial monitor isn't working when I tried it in Arduino 1.5.1r2.

Should I install some sort of virtual Com/serial port driver to allow for driver installation? In which case do you have one to recommend?
Or should I just use it through the native USB port? (I haven't tried connecting through the native port yet)

Forgive my ignorance as this is my first time playing with an Arduino.
(yes it is plugged into the programming port, and yes I set the software to the right hardware/port)

Any help/assistance would be greatly appreciated. There is no popup in windows to install the driver and I cannot find the DUE in the control panel :frowning:

Then follow these steps to install the Arduino drivers:

Right click the Unknown Device in Device Manager
Select Update Driver Software
Select Browse my computer for software
Click Browse button
Select the Drivers folder under the location of your Arduino software installation. (Do not select the FTDI folder inside the Drivers folder)
Click OK
Click Next

Thanks I found the problem.

It was the USB cable of all things. A new USB cable and the laptop recognized it right away.

thanks for the help.

Thank you Louis Davis from the Hill Country of Austin, Texas.

Your solution enabled me to bring up my brand new Due after the initial problem of the missing driver.