Try this: go into the control panel, probably under settings on the START menu.
Click open "SYSTEM". Select the "Hardware" tab and click on "Device Manager".
Look for the listing for "Ports". See if "COM 1" is listed and click it open. See what the Device status is - or click on the "Resources" tab and select the box for "use automatic settings" if it is not checked.
If "COM 1" is not listed, click open the COM port # that is listed, and from one of the tabs you should be able to change the COM port back to COM 1.
I managed to do this on my gf's laptop through a bit of trial and error, and eventually it did work! The other option, maybe to try first, is after you see what COM port # is being used on your laptop, you can try to change the COM # in the .ini file in the tuner software to match it...
Like I said, I managed to try a whole bunch of stuff until I got it to work, but at the same time I would still advise caution because after all this is a computer and maybe I just got lucky. I don't want to just say "It's easy- just try a bunch of stuff!" and then your laptop crashes. But if you try the above steps you may be able to get the COM port to match what the software is looking for. Write down everything you do in case you need to change it all back again... Good luck!