Why can't I find COM ports on my two laptops

Development Tools IDE 1.x
1

I have an Arduino diecimila and have no problems running it in my HP desk PC. It find COM3 itself under tools. No problem
On my very old latop and my very new laptop I can not find COM ports at all.
I go to windows device manager but there is no COM. I can only see a lot of USB controllers.
Can I do something, or is it a limitation for laptops?

Ebbe

2

How about installing the drivers?

3

The comm ports will appear once you connect the arduino, once you install the drivers They have the usb-to-serial chip onboard, rather than built into your PC/laptop.

Texy