richard1982:
Yes COM1 is the only port I use, my laptop has no other serial ports (a part from COM4 when I use my MEGA i dont know why its like that)Nothing had shorted out, as nothing had changed, it was talking back to my pc when it felt like it after I uploaded the colour sensor code, it was a weird one, I am currently using Win 7, and it shows the "usb to rs232" when plugged in.
Thanks
Try to change the port. In devices and printers in Win 7 search for something like FTDI or COM, properties, then Hardware and find for some control panel with bauds and other settings from the FTDI driver.
It is very weird that your duemilanove uses com1 because that port is usually reserved even if there is no physical port in the PC.