failed device driver software installation

[apriliamille]

getting error while trying to install

device driver sotware was on successfully installed
please consult with your device manufacturer for assitance getting this device installed
Prolific USB-to-Serial Comm Port (Com4)  Failed

gateway computer
nvidia video card
tried usb on front
tried usb on back
tried usb driver that came with cd
tried usb driver on the website

i double clicked both types of .exe and selected run as administrator

im a computer idiot and i dont know what else to do

mike

[apriliamille]

well not sure what to do but im trying a few things to report if it helps
just tried running from the website instead of downloading and double clicking
it just said unistallshield wizard has finished unistalling pl-2303 usb to serial
clicked run again now im seeing the installshield wizard will install pl-2303 usb to serial on your computer
now it is saying the installshield wizard has successfully instalaled the pl-2303 usb-to-serial click finish
pulled usb and reclicked it says instalaling device driver
now its getting the device driver not installed

went into device driver and see the "!" on prolific usb-to-serial com port (com4) tried to update driver from there and getting:
windows encountered a problem installing the driver software for your device
windows found driver software for your device but encountered an error while attempting to install it the device can not start (Code 10)

my net framework is 3.5 sp1
gateway pc
windows vista home 32 bit

well tried it on my mainstream pc
vista 64 ultimate
wolfdale e8400 ozc reaper ram raptor hard drives
4 programs installed wow, 2142, forged alliance and kaspersky
no worky there either. same error

im out of ideas

yeah im still trying. i just noticed electrical tape wrapped on my usb cable about 12 or so inches up from the usb plug. is this normal?
borrowed a neighbor laptop with xp it works. unfortunately i cant afford another pc and or laptop and or an xp system so hopefully something can be dug up

[apriliamille]

persistance and stubbornness pays off
not sure what i did but it involved
getting  vista-prolific-chip-driver from some where i cant recall
installed it. did about 3 auto updates re installed the usb driver with a reboot between each one
forced com 3 in options
and now i think it is working
actually seeing a graph. sweetness ! what i was wanting when i got this charger

[tmenet]

We will check to see that we have the most current prolific chip driver. Glad you finally got it going. Sometimes windows can be a little finicky.

Al

[gadget01]

Running Windows 7 64-bit, Intel Core I7 custom desktop (that I built), all new components.

I cannot get the USB-Serial interface cable to work. I tried several times to install it, but windows says it fails every time.
Ran and reran and re-reran the driver install application to install, uninstall, install, etc, 2x restarts, NOTHING!

Thanks for making me beta-test for you at MY expense.

I'm very disappointed. The cable is cut open and modified with a resistor, then TAPED up, badly. I can't believe this.

Over $500 spent on 2 Xtrema chargers, 2 BIMs, 2 balancers.... not happy

Just tried this process again on my Fujitsu notebook running WinXP- same annoying result with the first driver listed, that says,

"This is the most recent ALL windows driver. If you are having problems please use one of the drivers below.
To make sure that the new driver take priority over the other one in Windows 7 right click on the device and
go to Unistall and check “Delete the driver software for this device”.
PL-2303 USB to Serial Bridge (H, HX, X) Installshield Driver Setup Program
Installer version & Build date: 1.1.0 (2009-12-02)
Windows 98/ME Driver: v2.0.0.19
Windows 2000/XP/Server2003 (32 & 64-bit) WDM WHQL Driver: v2.0.13.130
Windows Vista/7/Server2008 (32 & 64-bit) WDF WHQL Driver: v3.3.10.140
NOTE: For Windows 7, please use RC build 7100 or RTM 7600 Final version.
 (Installer program will not run on early Windows 7 or Beta versions)"

This did not work, just like it did on my desktop.

Tried again with the Windows Xp specific driver and it successfully installed.

Now how about getting a Windows 7 driver that actually works posted...

[tmenet]

I am sorry you are having  problems but I assure you our products are not in beta test and they use industry standard components. There is a USB communication IC actually embedded in the USB plug of your cable. It is made by Prolific and is used worldwide as a USB interface to standard COM ports. The drivers are obtained from them and have been working for years after being installed properly. You may go directly to their web site to get their latest PL 2303 drivers at  http://www.prolific.com.tw/Eng/downloads.asp?ID=31

We have had no problems for years until Windows 7 came out. It seems their latest installation does not work properly with some computers. Using a slightly older driver seemed to work for us and our customers. We have four version of the same driver on our web site as a result of this http://www.tmenet.com/support/downloads

If you can see the resistor you may have damaged the cable. Please return it to us for repair. The resistor was added because we had several thousand custom molded cables made for us and the cable did not meet our specification. They were causing our balancer to draw excessive current when used with the cable thus draining the battery under test. If you will not be using it with the balancer we can exchange it for an unmodified cable if you prefer.

[gadget01]

Sorry to sound so bitter. The beta-test comment was basically an insult and I retract that statement. It was a really frustrating situation with the constant driver installation failure, and when I saw the tape on the cable it got worse. I expected something nicer for the price. After I repaired the cable, I was able to update the firmware using my older Xtrema charger using my older XP-based laptop. I hope there is a fix for using Windows 7 soon. I realize this is a new operating system, but it's architecture is nearly identical to Vista which has been out for a few years. Anyways, my rant is over. I should have waited to post about it until after I got everything sorted out. Please accept my apologies.

My opinion about the Xtrema charger remains unchanged- it's an excellent product and I was very pleased when I first learned of the Xtrema that there was a quality U.S. designed/made unit, supported domestically. I find your definition of "integrated" a bit different from my own when referring to the balancer though. When I read "integrated," I take that to mean it's physically built-in so I was initially turned off by having to purchase a not-exactly-inexpensive BIM unit in addition to the balancer and have not one but two physical units external to the charger.

I have both Xtrema chargers on duty at the moment and I noticed that the charge current dropped momentarily and then returned to the programmed rate. This is the feedback loop with the balancer doing its job- very cool. On the product page for the balancer, the pentultimate bullet states:

"Adds integrated balancing to the Xtrema (with optional XTR-BIM) automatically supporting up to 4 series or parallel packs in any order!"

What exactly "integrated" means here just by reading this is unclear until you find the reference in the Xtrema manual. I suggest expanding this bullet to elaborate a bit and state how the charger automatically throttles back the charge rate when the cells are too imbalanced. That's the selling point right there! Without that feedback loop, the charger just keeps on going and hopefully the imbalanced cells are eventually corrected. Until I received my recent order of BIMs and balancers, this is the way I had been charging lipos for years and doing fine, but I would expect now that the packs will sustain greater longevity and performance.

Can the ribbon cable that connects the Xtrema to the BIM be extended? I prefer to charge pack inside a LipoSack with a little distance between my charging station and with the ribbon cables as short as they are, it's a difficult proposition. With this "integrated" system at work, it's extremely unlikely for a pack to ignite, but there's a reason I have renter's insurance on my household goods.

Thank you for your assistance.


Here's my fix for the usb cable:

[tmenet]

Thank you for the very favorable complements on our charger despite the problems you have had.

To clear up the story about why we call our balancer "integrated". When we were designing the Xtrema there were  NO battery taps on Lithium Polymer packs for the hobby market. If you read old posts on the forums, battery manufacturers claimed that Lipos stayed in balance better than any other technology and they did not need balancing. Besides, you couldn't get them all to re-equalize by slowly overcharging them like we do Ni Cd and NiMh cells. Well in fact the industry learned the hard way that while "good" LiPo's stay balanced better than any other technology in a perfect world, the result of an imbalance in the real world was catastrophic. This is why a temp probe was included with our Xtrema from the very beginning.

Just when we were getting thousands of boards made to release our product, battery manufacturers started producing new batteries with balancing taps and their own chargers with their add on balancers. This spawned other add on balancers like the "Blinky" that could be added to any charger or used stand alone. These devices could not communicate with your charger and were not really integrated into the charger function.

We then started working on our own balancer that would work stand alone, do A123's, Work with a  computer AND have integrated operation with our balancerless Xtrema making it a REAL balancing charger. We could do this because of our FREE updates for life policy. Mind you, if we had a built in balancer we would have simply said it had a built in balancer, but when you now sell a stand alone balancer for a balancerless charger you've been selling for a year, that now  works integrally with the functions  of a balancerless charger, all you can say is that it now has an integrated balancer. Integral should not imply built - in. I am sorry if we misled you, but there was no intention to deceive anyone.

The power of what we have done is to build a system that is so expandable that we could conceivable support up to 8 or more balancer on our system using extra BIM's and balancers.

To answer your question. We have successfully extended the 10 pin cables up to about 1 to 1.5 ft successfully before data errors occurred. If you increase all of them to 1ft each you should not have problems and have over 2 ft of  length.

[becky noel]

Thanks for information