please help.I have a female parallel port on the back of my laptop,so i got an adapter (serial port adapter DB9 female/DB25 male and a DB9 male to male).When i try to upload pronto the computer says pronto not responding or not connected.Do i have the right adapter?Should i get a DB9 to usb adapter instead?

Welcome to the "Why doesn't Phillips support USB?" club. There are several USB-to-serial adapters, and its kind of hunt-and-peck until you find the one which works on your system. The Keyspan US-19W received good notices on other threads, but did not work for me. I finally arrived at the Belkin F5U103. It worked for me, but not for others. I say, buy 'em all and return the ones that don't work. Otherwise, you'll be three weeks if you go one at a time, unless you're lucky enough to get it right the first time. Keyspan is available online [do a search], but Belkin is available (in the USA) at Best Buys and Fry's.

Rob, to answer your first question - NO, you do not have the right adapter(s). You can't convert parallel to serial with simple cables and pin adapters. If you don't have a serial port, try Joel's suggestion.

I have had some success with the Belkin USB to serial adapter, however, it seems to be very dependent on which com port the adapter lands on. On com 4, PE does not connect to the pronto (it doesn't think it is there). If you can steer it to com 1 or 2, it works for me.