While watching this thread and quietly thinking I'm glad my USB/serial 
converters are behaving OK...the phone rang and everything changed! One 
of my customers uses USB/serial converters along with a bootloader 
program I've supplied so they can update their PIC boards whenever I send 
them a new program. Yesterday they had computer problems and 0 of 3 
laptops would program anything! I supply them Bafo brand converters which 
use the Prolific PL-2303 chip.

Curiously, one of the converters I tested here worked on my laptop but not 
on either of two other Win XP machines. Conversely, another converter, but 
same manufacturer/model etc, would not work on any machine. The 
symptom was the RS232 would receive OK but not transmit, and the RTS 
line which I can normally set/clear with Bray Terminal would not operate. 
Sounds similar to what Olin(?) observed.

To cut a long story short I got hold of the latest Windows driver from 
http://tech.prolific.com.tw (NOT from Bafo!). Driver is v2.0.2.1 and the file is 
named wd_pl2303h-hx-x_v20019v2021.zip. It seems to have successfully 
fixed all my problems! It's an InstallShield .exe file too which seems to 
remove previous drivers first and is easier to use than trying to tell Windows 
where to get a driver file from.

Hope this helps others!

-- 
Brent Brown, Electronic Design Solutions
16 English Street, Hamilton 2001, New Zealand
Ph: +64 7 849 0069
Fax: +64 7 849 0071
Cell/txt: 027 433 4069
eMail:  brent.brown@clear.net.nz


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