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Products => Test Equipment => Topic started by: Jester on October 16, 2016, 02:39:02 pm

Title: USB to RS232 converter Prolific Driver saga
Post by: Jester on October 16, 2016, 02:39:02 pm
Yesterday I purchased a USB to RS232 converter from a local electronics retailer. Upon installation (Win7) device manager flags the driver as bad with the yellow!

Device status is reported as "This device is not working properly because Windows cannot load the drivers required for this device. (Code 31)"

The VID and PID indicate  Prolific USB-to Serial Comm Port  067B & 2303

Windows has installed driver version 3.8.1.3

My best guess is that the hardware is either old or using a cloned Prolific chip. See:  http://www.totalcardiagnostics.com/support/Knowledgebase/Article/View/92/20/prolific-usb-to-serial-fix-official-solution-to-code-10-error (http://www.totalcardiagnostics.com/support/Knowledgebase/Article/View/92/20/prolific-usb-to-serial-fix-official-solution-to-code-10-error)

The device came with a DVD with about 20 different drivers, however Windows refuses to install these older drivers, instead installing version 3.8.1.3 (05/07/2016) and stating The best driver software for your device is already installed, ignoring the supplied drivers even when I select them for installation.

Is there away around this or do I need to return it and try another vendor?



Title: Re: USB to RS232 converter Prolific Driver saga
Post by: quinty on October 16, 2016, 06:52:29 pm
Hi,
if you bought it from aliexpress/ebay at very low price than it's fake chip for sure.
Same may appear when buy FT232R.
But it's no problem because to solve this You must install older version of driver. Go to device manager, then manually click "update", and point to .inf file by hand.
Check attachment, I'm using this version.
Title: Re: USB to RS232 converter Prolific Driver saga
Post by: Jester on October 16, 2016, 07:27:27 pm
Hi,
if you bought it from aliexpress/ebay at very low price than it's fake chip for sure.
Same may appear when buy FT232R.
But it's no problem because to solve this You must install older version of driver. Go to device manager, then manually click "update", and point to .inf file by hand.
Check attachment, I'm using this version.

Perhaps that method worked in the past, but the Win7 version I'm running refuses to install any version except the latest, it simply reports" The best driver software for your device is already installed"
Title: Re: USB to RS232 converter Prolific Driver saga
Post by: TheSteve on October 16, 2016, 08:23:18 pm
Return it. It is possible to get it working but it will be a pain.
Title: Re: USB to RS232 converter Prolific Driver saga
Post by: oPossum on October 16, 2016, 08:32:41 pm
Uninstall the current driver first.

Title: Re: USB to RS232 converter Prolific Driver saga
Post by: Jester on October 17, 2016, 10:53:42 am
Finally got it working through a combination of using admin rights and using the uninstaller in my original post. Entirely possible Windows will update the driver in the future and kill it so for the record the working version is 3.8.13 dated 05/07/2016, which is odd as this is a much newer driver.