Ok, now to your point, I disconnected all the other wires going away from DueMilanove, and realized one of the USB ports on my laptop does not recognize it. Now I changed and moved on to another USB port and it sounded like it did recognize the board. However in the device manager Other Devices it says (with an exclamation mark): "FT232R USB UART"
When I open Arduino, the manu "Port" from "Tools" is off. However it says at the bottom of the window: "Arduino Duemilanove or Diecimila, ATmega328 on COM1".
Now when I try to run a sketch (AnalogReadSerial, for instance) it gives me the following error:
Arduino: 1.6.5 (Windows 8.1), Board: "Arduino Duemilanove or Diecimila, ATmega328"
Sketch uses 2,366 bytes (7%) of program storage space. Maximum is 30,720 bytes.
Global variables use 200 bytes (9%) of dynamic memory, leaving 1,848 bytes for local variables. Maximum is 2,048 bytes.
avrdude: ser_open(): can't open device "\.\COM1": The system cannot find the file specified.
Problem uploading to board. See http://www.arduino.cc/en/Guide/Troubleshooting#upload for suggestions.
This report would have more information with
"Show verbose output during compilation"
enabled in File > Preferences.
what should I do? The LEDs green and yello) are both on now; a healthy sign?
Thank you,
Karim.