USB to Serial on Windows-8

[androgenix]

Hi Angel and all!

I was also hit by the same issue of Windows 8 desupport of prolific PL2303HXA chips used in the K149-BC USB PIC programmer for NoV-64 but I found a solution if still of interest.

Apparently, Prolific deliberately fails the start of their latest driver with error 10 for Windows 8 desupported chips such as above.

The solution per the link in the following thread is to force install of an earlier driver without the offending check:
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windo...34f8137645

Worked for me like a charm!

In summary, if under Device Manager you have a yellow triangle against the Serial Port device for the Prolific 2303 chipset used by the K149-BC USB PIC programmer with status report error 10 do the following:
1. Select the Serial Port device with yellow triangle in Device Manager, press delete to uninstall the device and check the box to delete the driver software as well.
2. Install the older driver from the source from the following link and reboot as necessary. (it may still report existing driver software to delete despite #1):
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B7Fildjs...sp=sharing
3. You should find the USB programmer is ok now and microbrn.exe etc should work. Note if at some point later Windows seems to automatically restore latest drivers so that you get the same issue again you either have to 'Roll Back Driver' if that option is available under Device Manager device driver properties or repeat the above process - an irritation I don't know yet how to resolve permanently but happy enough with this solution!

Hope that helps!

BTW thanks Angel, Diego and others for your respective amazing contributions to the HP41 device and community!