Neither one of my PCs have serial ports on them, would a serial to usb (ie http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.js...ductId=2292430) have the same effect or am I S.O.L?

afaik, you will still need one of the com solutions. to connect to such a device and there are much cheaper options for such a converter...

buy one of these http://alldav.com/index.php?main_page=prod...76d061b39e5640a
then simply solder a wire to the Rx pad,, and connect that to the Tx pad on the liteon drive (you can use a pin as a probe)

this will only work using windows software,

btw I have not tested this yet.

you could also buy a normal usb to rs232 converter and use a max232 type (CK3) or homemade adapter as normal.