I have had the same USB to serial adapter working on Windows XP for quite awhile. After I recently purchased a new laptop running Windows 7 64-Bit I needed to reinstall my USB to Serial Converter. I had a couple issues the first being the fact that the Dell Studio XPS laptop has a slot load CD/DVD drive and the drivers were on a mini CD. So the first thing I tried was to zip up the drivers CD that initially came with the USB to Serial Converter and get the zip file over to the new laptop. After doing this and attempting to install the drivers I was still receiving an error. I imagine either the drivers were not working with Windows 7 or there were no 64-bit drivers. Below I explain the USB error that was displaying, provide access to the correct drivers, and provide steps to install the drivers.

Windows 7: PL-2303 USB To Serial Adapter Error

The above error is what you would see after installing the drivers that came with the device and then attempting to plugin the USB to Serial Adapter. Follow the steps below to get the proper drivers installed by uninstalling what is currently there, installing the proper drivers, and then plugging in the USB to Serial Adapter.

Uninstall PL-2303 USB To Serial (DB-9/DB-25) Device:

1. Windows 7 Device Manager: First open the Windows 7 Device Manager by right clicking My Computer and selecting Properties from the drop down. Select Device Manager from the left navigation of the My Computer Properties window. Scroll down and right click on USB-Serial Controller under Other Devices as displayed below. Select Uninstall from the pop open menu and then reboot.

   

2. Download New PL-2303 Drivers: Click here to download the new Prolific PL-2303 USB To Serial Adapter drivers. Unpack the downloaded file, named PL-2303-Prolific-Driver-Installer-v10518.zip, to reveal the PL-2303 drivers executable called PL2303_Prolific_DriverInstaller_v10518.exe.
3. Uninstall Old PL-2303 Drivers: Double click on PL2303_Prolific_DriverInstaller_v10518.exe to begin uninstalling the drivers that do not work.

   

   Click Yes to confirm that you want to actually run the uninstallation script which will remove any of the old PL-2303 drivers from your system.

4. Complete PL-2303 Driver Removal: After clicking yes above you will see the PL-2303 USB to Serial Adapter drivers being removed from your computer as displayed below.

   

   After the process is complete a PL-2303 driver removal verification will display as shown below. Simply click the Finish button to complete the process.

   

Install PL-2303 USB To Serial Adapter USB Drivers On Windows 7:

Now that the incorrect drivers have been removed you can proceed installing the proper drivers. First make sure that the USB to Serial Adapter is not plugged into the USB port on the computer. Follow the steps below to complete the installation of the proper drivers.

1. Launch PL-2303 Driver Installer: Double click on the same executable file mentioned in step three above which will now launch the actual installer as displayed below.

   

2. Continue PL-2303 Driver Install: Click the Next button from the initial install wizard window displayed above to continue the PL-2303 USB to Serial Adapter driver installation wizard as displayed below.

   

3. Complete PL-2303 Driver Install: After a short amount of time the PL-2303 driver installation wizard should complete showing the status window below.

   

   Click the Finish button to complete the process.

4. Verify USB To Serial Adapter Drivers: You can now plugin the PL-2303 USB To Serial Adapter to see if the drivers have been installer properly. After plugging in the device you should see a USB device status message as displayed below confirming that the device installed properly.

   

Your PL-2303 USB To Serial Adapter should now work without issue. Use your favorite application, such as SecureCRT or Putty, to console into a device via the serial port.

TRENDnet USB to Serial Converter TU-S9 (Blue)

Trendware Usa, Electronics, $9.20

PCs For Dummies, Windows 7 Edition

Dan Gookin. For Dummies 2009, Paperback, 384 pages, $6.88

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010 at 10:40 PM and is filed under Insights. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.