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navigato_r
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USB serial cable on laptop with W8

Mon Feb 25, 2013 7:49 pm

I installed a usb serial cable on my laptop , my laptop runs W8 , when i connected the cable automatically a driver was installed , but at the end of the installation it showed an error.

1.- How can it be fixed
2.- Where it´s the hyperterminal application on W8

Thanks in advance

Navigato_r
Last edited by Flying Fox on Mon Feb 25, 2013 8:14 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Edit by mod - lower case thread title
 
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Re: USB SERIAL CABLE ON LAPTOP WITH W8

Mon Feb 25, 2013 7:53 pm

navigato_r wrote:
2.- Where it´s the hyperterminal application on W8


Doesn't exist. As of Windows Vista back in 2007 it was dropped from the OS.

It was not a Microsoft product and it can be bought from here for $60 USD.
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bthylafh
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Re: USB SERIAL CABLE ON LAPTOP WITH W8

Mon Feb 25, 2013 8:06 pm

We use TeraTerm for serial comms to replace Hyperterminal. It's free. http://ttssh2.sourceforge.jp/

As to the USB cable, it's hard to say. I don't personally like USB->serial cables because in my experience they tend to be unreliable. On a desktop machine I prefer PCI Express or PCI serial-port cards, and for laptops I'm partial to ExpressCard or PC Card serial port cards. Failing that, I gather that the best USB->serial chips are made by FTDI, included in better cables like these:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductLi ... 905&y=-112
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Re: USB serial cable on laptop with W8

Mon Feb 25, 2013 8:50 pm

To fix the issue, you could see if the manufacturer has a driver for Windows 8 on their website.
 
mnecaise
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Re: USB serial cable on laptop with W8

Mon Feb 25, 2013 11:14 pm

Without more information, sounds like a drive issue.
bthylafh wrote:
As to the USB cable, it's hard to say. I don't personally like USB->serial cables because in my experience they tend to be unreliable. On a desktop machine I prefer PCI Express or PCI serial-port cards, and for laptops I'm partial to ExpressCard or PC Card serial port cards. Failing that, I gather that the best USB->serial chips are made by FTDI, included in better cables like these:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductLi ... 905&y=-112


Don't disagree with the hardware port as a preferred method but this may be a problem if you don't have a PCI-e or ExpressCard port. We've had very good luck with Tripplite (Keyspan) USA-19HS USB-Serial converters. They just work. FTDI chipset with stock driver is my second choice.
 
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Re: USB serial cable on laptop with W8

Tue Feb 26, 2013 12:25 am

PuTTY works with serial ports as well.

As for the device error, you're going to have to dig into the device manager and event viewer to find out what's wrong.
 
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Re: USB serial cable on laptop with W8

Tue Feb 26, 2013 8:59 am

Most USB serial adapters you buy these days use a chipset made by a company called Prolific. We use USB-to-serial converters a lot where I work (we deal with a lot of devices that talk RS-232 or RS-422), and the Windows drivers for the Prolific-based units suck. They're cheap for a reason.

Go to Newegg or TigerDirect and search for USB-to-serial adapters that use the FTDI chipset. They cost a few bucks more, but unlike the Prolific-based units they actually work.

While not an option for the OP (since it is a laptop), an even better choice for desktop users is to check whether your motherboard has a COM header on it. Even if there isn't a DB-9 on the rear port cluster, the motherboard may still have on-board COM hardware; all you need to do is buy the corresponding rear panel DB-9 bracket & cable to allow you to use the motherboard's native COM port.
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Flatland_Spider
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Re: USB serial cable on laptop with W8

Tue Feb 26, 2013 9:31 am

PuTTY works great as a serial terminal. I like it much better then TeraTerm.

@bthylafh
Do you have any recommendations for ExpressCard serial port cards? I was looking at them a while ago, but I couldn't tell what features I should look for.

This http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6839158050 and this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6839158049 look the best.
 
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Re: USB serial cable on laptop with W8

Tue Feb 26, 2013 9:50 am

Yes, another vote for PuTTY. Great piece of software, and the price is right!

(PuTTY is so popular it even got ported back to Linux... so what started out as a Windows version of the *NIX SSH tools has now come full circle!)
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bthylafh
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Re: USB serial cable on laptop with W8

Tue Feb 26, 2013 10:01 am

Flatland_Spider wrote:
@bthylafh
Do you have any recommendations for ExpressCard serial port cards? I was looking at them a while ago, but I couldn't tell what features I should look for.


Our telecoms guy has this & he says it's dead reliable.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6839158033

It's more expensive but has a native UART instead of being EC->USB->serial, so it's a real serial port.
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Flatland_Spider
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Re: USB serial cable on laptop with W8

Tue Feb 26, 2013 12:44 pm

Nice, thanks! :) The datasheet from Startech does say it's Linux compatible even though Newegg doesn't list it.
 
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Re: USB serial cable on laptop with W8

Tue Feb 26, 2013 1:02 pm

Flatland_Spider wrote:
Nice, thanks! :) The datasheet from Startech does say it's Linux compatible even though Newegg doesn't list it.

Even if the datasheet didn't explicitly say so I would've been surprised if it wasn't. Serial ports (both "real" and USB) seem to be pretty well-supported on Linux these days. Even the crappy Prolific ones work acceptably (usually...) with the stock Linux USB serial drivers.
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