What OS did the machine come with originally? It's possible that the serial port is turned off - normally you'd use the Thinkpad features to turn it back on, but without WinXX, that's tough. You should also be able to use the 'PS2' command - I'd expect that that would work if you booted from a DOS diskette (but you'd need to steal PS2.EXE (or .COM) from another TP that's got WinXX on it already) Jeff