dongle issue, device manager shows alert - Win7 x64

edited August 2015 in Software
Hi everyone
I'm having some (trivial) troubles finding the COM on the GUI. I'm quite sure it's a trivial issue, but right now I'm just stuck.

Let's start from the beginning: I'm using Win7 64-bit, I've followed the Getting started guide, i download the FTDI drivers from here, than I've followed this FTDI installation guide and it still doesn't recognize the device.

What I've done:
- I've plugged the dongle in the USB, the blue led is steady and the switch is closer to the pc.
- the auto-installation has tried to find the drivers but at the end it has failed to install so on the device manager I can find a device (USB Serial Port) with an alert;
- I downloaded the drivers, extracted them and launched dpinst-amd64.exe and it install Bus/D2XX and VCP drivers.

Now everything seems to be ok, but on the device manager the alert has not disappeared and, at the end, the GUI can't still recognize the device.

I've also tried to turn on the board AFTER I had pluged in the dongle, but nothing has changed.
Because I'm using Windows I also restarted the pc, but nothing has changed.

So I opened the forum and started searching.
Here the best result I've been able to find:

nickj: I ended up finding the board under com 3 in the GUI.  I think it wasn't showing up before but then I found it.  If that doesn't work try to describe exactly where you're stuck.

Can I do anything else in order to let the pc recognize the dongle?
Thanks in advance for the support and sorry for the naive topic (I hope it can be usefull to many people, that's why the long title)

Comments

  • wjcroftwjcroft Mount Shasta, CA
    David, Usually in these cases we recommend you try the dongle with another laptop or OS (such as Linux). Just to double check that the problem is not in your laptop usb configuration. I assume you are plugging directly into the hardware USB ports, and not through any sort of USB hub. (Some desktops have a USB hub in the path for front panel ports.)

    The fact that it did not pickup the driver automatically when the dongle was inserted, might point to some oddness in your USB hardware. And then you had to manually install the drivers.

    You might also experiment with a complete uninstall of all FTDI stuff from your Add / Remove Hardware control panel; reboot, and then insert the dongle, see if it downloads the drivers from Microsoft.

    If you go inside the Device Manager when an alert is showing on the device, you can usually get some more status information details. Let us know what that is saying inside.
  • David, Usually in these cases we recommend you try the dongle with another laptop or OS (such as Linux). Just to double check that the problem is not in your laptop usb configuration. I assume you are plugging directly into the hardware USB ports, and not through any sort of USB hub. (Some desktops have a USB hub in the path for front panel ports.)

    I'll try on a Rpi2 with Ubuntu Mate and Raspbian.
    I've not used any usb hub.

    The fact that it did not pickup the driver automatically when the dongle was inserted, might point to some oddness in your USB hardware. And then you had to manually install the drivers.

    I installed it manually running dpinst-amd64.exe found in the zip from FTDI. At the end of the installation the wizard says the installation has been completed correctly.

    You might also experiment with a complete uninstall of all FTDI stuff from your Add / Remove Hardware control panel; reboot, and then insert the dongle, see if it downloads the drivers from Microsoft.

    I'll try.

    If you go inside the Device Manager when an alert is showing on the device, you can usually get some more status information details. Let us know what that is saying inside.

    Ok. Unfortunately my OS is setted in italian so any screenshot would be almost pointless.

    Properties/General/Device status:
    Windows cannot verify the digital signature for the drivers required for this device. A recent hardware or software change might have installed a file that is signed incorrectly or damaged, or that might be malicious software from an unknown source. (Code 52)

    Properties/Drivers:
    Provider: FTDI
    Date: 10 jul 2015
    Version: 2.12.6.0
    Signature: Microsoft Windows Hardware Compatibility Publisher

    In the Microsoft community someone suggest to edit the register to disable drivers signature enforcement and disable upper filter and lower filter.
    It's the first time I heard of them and I won't lead this path without trying someting less drastic.

    On superuser.com someone else suggest to edit the boot configuration data store via command line.
    Here some lean info about BCDEdit; Windows website has a complete guide to this tool.

    It looks like I have to disable signature enforcement, but the idea doesn't make me enthusiast (there must be a reason if it's there).
    I wonder why and how FTDI has such unsuitable drivers with an invalid signature for Win7x64.

    I'll update you if anything changes using Linux.


  • wjcroftwjcroft Mount Shasta, CA
    re: disabling the signature enforcement. It's OK and little risk to do this. On Mac OS this is also required to allow editing of the Info.plist file containing vendor ID information.

  • edited August 2015
    I can't take a little risk on this machine right now, I should backup a lot of things first.

    On linux I can find a /dev/ttyUSB0 if I plug it in the USB, but I've experienced different (and off-topic) troubles trying to use the openBCi on Ubuntu Mate for Rpi2 (last but not least expand the filesystem to the whole 16gb SD that seems a mighty exploit).

    I may not answer for some days.
    So long, thanks.
  • wjcroftwjcroft Mount Shasta, CA
    The only possible risk is if you install random internet downloads that contain new device drivers. How often do you do that?? :-) You could consider just turning it off when using the FTDI driver, then turning back on otherwise.

    Sorry for this headache on Win7 x64. I have not heard anyone else mention this before. There must be some signatures on the FTDI drivers, because none of the other Windows OSes are complaining. Is it possible your root certificates are out of date or old on your Win7?

  • edited August 2015
    Attempt #1
    use Driver Signature Enforcement Override v1.3b (dseo) to stop Win7x64 blocking non-recognized drivers.

    2. run as admin
    3. Enable test mode.
    NOTE: "UAC must be disabled in- order to use this tool"
    4. reboot
    5. run again dseo as admin
    6. chose "Sign a System file" and click next
    7. go to device manager -> rightclick on the device -> properties -> driver -> driver details
    i found four files (with the whole directory):
    - ftser2k.sys (I remember of this installing FTDI drivers)
    - serenum.sys (as digital signature this has 'Microsoft Windows' instead of 'Microsoft Windows Hardware Compaibility', like the others; it should work anyway, but I've noticed it)
    - ftcserco.dll
    - ftseui2.dll
    8. I've typed 'C:\Windows\system32\drivers\ftser2k.sys' and ' C:\Windows\system32\DRIVERS\serenum.sys' to sign the files ad system files.

    Attempt #2
    Update Root certificate

    2. run rootupd.exe
    3. it just does something without any feedback...

    Now reboot.

    EDIT:
    Now the device seems to work properly and no warning are shoun in the device manager.
    Right now I just don't know what attempt has been crucial. I can try to turn off the Test mode to verify if it works anyway, in that case the root certificate update has done the job.

    Thanks to wjcroft for the suggestions :)
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