USB to Serial Adapter

[Guest]

Trying to use AirLink101 and Q-store USB to serial adapters on a Dell
Inspiron E1405 laptop. Both adapters use "Prolific" drivers. Using
AirLink's vista drivers Device Manager says the drivers installed ok but the
device will not start. AirLink says the adapter and notebook are not
compatible but nothing is wrong with the adapter of notebook. Dell says the
adapter is not on Microsofts vista hardware list so they more or less wash
their hands of it. Any help?

 

[Guest]

Richardk,

I think you answered your own question. I'd find a USB to serial adapter
that is compatible with Vista and use that.

 

[Guest]

Two things. I haven't found an adapter in a retail store that says it is
vista compatible. Dell came up with one online for about $110.00 but that
doesn't seem reasonable. If it is just a hardware compatibility issue with
something in the Laptop there should be a way to identify it. Rather than
just buy devices and hope they work it would be better to know just what the
issue is.

 

[Guest]

Richardk,

The way I understand the problem is that Vista discontinued native (that is,
resident in Vista) support for serial devices. That doesn't mean that 3rd
party vendors can't produce serial devices and supporting drivers. So, the
problem for you is to find such a vendor. I would use google to search for
suppliers. I have no idea what's out there. Serial is now legacy. Here is
a comment I copied from a publication about that (in response to someone
complaining about no native serial support in Vista):

And I notice the guy's complaining about a lack of serial support. If Apple
did this, they'd be lauded as looking ahead. MS does it, and its called out
as an annoyance (but, really, does ANYTHING use serial ports anymore, or is
the guy trying to use a 10 year old modem?).

I suppose a vendor can develop anything to run on Vista should he decide to
do so.

 

[huwyngr]

I have a similar problem with my Nokia phone which uses a USB to Serial
cable. No way to get the PC to see the phone with or without the Nokia
PCSuite software, which is now said to be VISTA compatible.

This was first undeer XP and now under VISTA.

I was using a cheap 3rd party DKU-5 cable and since the Nokia software
installs the driver Nokia blam 3rd party cables but I was able to
determine that it used a Prolific chip so I found a Prolific driver for
the chip in the cable and under XP then the Device manager could see
the cable and said the port was correctly installed but still no phone.

One thing I believe you do have to do is make sure that Device Manager
allocates a COM port to the device and that the sfotware for the device
it is plugged into uses that COM port.

I haven't looked for a Prolific driver for VISTA since I'm not
confident about getting it to work -- I may buy the newer Nokia CA
cable if they will guarantee it or buy a SIM card reader!

FWIW