Trouble installing FTDI Dongle driver on new HP laptop, Windows 7

George MartinGeorge Martin
edited April 2017 in Cyton
I have upgraded to a new computer and have not been able to get the dongle driver installed successfully.  When I first plugged in the driver I got the message that installation had failed.  I went to device manager and uninstalled it (listed under other, not under com ports.  Plugged in the dongle again with the same result.  Read on the forum about manual install if this error occurred.  Went through the manual install process and got an error saying that windows thought the software was improperly installed.  GIven that I had followed the instructions I clicked the ignore button.

Plugged in Dongle, Connected My 8 Channel board to the battery pack and started the OpenBCI GUI.  It could not connect.  I looked at the device manager again and found nothing list4d under ports.  When I plug in the dongle I get no message about having to install the drivers, no drivers show up in device manager or under USB hubs.  I can find no way to uninstall what might have installed or to reinstall the drivers
 
I am running win7 64bit on an HP i5 laptop.

Any help would be greatly appreciated


George

Comments

  • wjcroftwjcroft Mount Shasta, CA
    edited January 2017
    George, hi. Sorry to hear that.

    Found this page and links for folks encountering a similar issue,

    http://forums.parallax.com/discussion/139525/ftdi-driver-problems-with-windows-7-64-bit

    What that post says basically is that USB3 ports fail, you must use one of the USB2 ports on the laptop. Look at the color of the plastic inside the port, blue is 3. This is a problem with the FTDI driver and should be fixed by FTDI. If your machine has ONLY USB3 ports, you may be in trouble. You could try emailing, contacting FTDI to see if they are working on it. Might also be related to the Windows 7 OS. USB3 ports might work on Windows 8+ on your hardware.

    William

  • George MartinGeorge Martin
    William,

    Thanks for the info.   I ran my registry repair utility today and after that I could find the ftdi driver in the device manager under USB Hubs.  My laptop has one USB 2 port and several USB 3. I will try the dongle in that port on Monday

    George
  • wjcroftwjcroft Mount Shasta, CA
    George, sounds good. If the COM port doesnt show up immediately after you insert the dongle in the USB 2 port -- then uninstall the FTDI driver. And see if when you reinsert the dongle, Windows 7 will automatically go to Microsoft's driver download for the FTDI.

  • George MartinGeorge Martin
    The COM port did not show up.  I retraced my steps and got similar results.  I got through most of the startup process with the windows GUI then got an error regarding blue tooth connection.

    Turns out my built in  blue tooth is failing. (Refurbished computer with just epired 9o day warranty)  I have ordered a usb adapter that should be the final fix.  Amazon will deliver Monday.  With luck I will be running on the newer computer soon. 


  • George MartinGeorge Martin
    William,

    After installing a new blue tooth USB dongle I am still stuck.  I get errors in the GUI saying the USB connection failed and the Driver never installs properly.  It turns out that my computer is an updated version (meaning it has only USB 3 ports).  My MacBook also has just USB 3 ports.  I am currently stuck.  I will contact support at FTDI to see if there is a solution.  If not I will get one of my old laptops out of mothballs and use it for OpenBCI. 

    Thanks for all you help.
  • wjcroftwjcroft Mount Shasta, CA
    George, thanks.

    It sounds like an incompatibility with Windows 7 and USB 3 (which didnt exist until after Win 7). Is it possible that some sort of USB port expander exists, which presents a true USB 2 port? My guess is that as far as FTDI is concerned, Windows 7 and previous have low priority, if newer hardware is used containing only USB 3. I'm sure they assume all new computers just default to the latest Windows OS.

    Keep us posted.

    If it's any consolation,


    William

  • George MartinGeorge Martin
    No reply yet from the folks at FTDI.  I do have one additional question,  In the past I have had trouble with over the net driver installs.  I have been able to get my hands on the software to do manual install and that has worked.  Do the folks at OpenBCI have copies of the driver that I could use for an attempt at manual install.
    '
    It is not just a windows problem as I can not get a connection with my MacBook either.
  • wjcroftwjcroft Mount Shasta, CA
    George, are you referring to the FTDI VCP driver? Below is where we point folks for a manual install. I think the 2016 driver there covers all Windows versions. The docs links in the Comments field should say.

    http://www.ftdichip.com/Drivers/VCP.htm

    By "over the net driver install", you mean the automated Windows OS recognition of a new device and install from Microsoft's database? Both manual and automated driver installs should be equivalent.

    I'm not sure Mac has the automated driver install feature.
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