Xiaofan Chen wrote:
>> Does anyone know who makes USB to serial chips without this
>> stupidity?
>>
>
> This is not stupid. This is a feature. To have a serial number is
> a good thing. If you have a USB device, if it does not have a
> serial number and you need to install the driver every time you
> install it to a different port, Windows will ask you for a driver.
> If it has a serial number, Windows will recognize it as a unique
> device and use the existing driver. This is the typical usage
> pattern of a USB device.
>
> Your case is not a typical usage of a USB device.

I agree with Xiaofan.

>> If the driver installation messes up, that particular piece of 
>> "identical"
>> hardware can *NEVER* be used on that system, because of the bad
>> driver (the "driver remove" option never seems to work...)

If the converter is FTDI based, use their FTClean utility:

http://www.ftdichip.com/Resources/Utilities.htm

if it's Prolific-based, you may want to consider going through the registry 
and deleting all keys with "Prolific" in the name (at your own risk, don't 
hold me liable if you kill your system, etc).

The real solution to your problem, would be to buy your own USB/RS232 
dongle.

Vitaliy


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