LPT & COM ports are missing

OK. The problem is we use a couple of programs at work that are still DOS based. Therefore the ONLY way we could print was using a printer that has an LPT cable port. That was working fine until they decided to buy a new PC. That new PC did NOT have the parallel cable port. So I found a rerouting method using the Microsoft Loopback Adapter that comes with Windows. It worked just fine.

Now all of a sudden, the printer is freezing and NOT printing like it should. I did a little triouble shooting and I found tat the LPT & COM ports are missing from the device manager. Every other computer I have checked has them, but these are gone.

My contention is that if we replace those ports, our problem should be fixed. My coworkers insist that our "computer guy" install a PC card with an LPT port on it, so we can use the old cable again. But I still think that replacing the ports on the device manager will do the trick.

So, my question is... Is there a way to replace the LPT & COM ports in the device manager without restoring the whole PC?