Serial to USB adapter won't work with Autotap Any ideas?
 

I purchased a computer off of ebay with autotap already installed. I reformatted the hard drive since I found it had a virus. The laptop doesn't have an serial port, but does have an USB. And it did work with the USB port adapter before I formatted it.

Anyone have any ideas?

The older laptop is running windows 98 and the USB is working since I sometimes hook it up in the house to the router through the USB port.

I have a newer laptop that I have been using Autotap with the serial port, but I would like to get that older laptop working so I can leave it in the car to log and clear codes if they come up.



Thanks

The USB to serial adapter will most likely have drivers that need to be installed (the drivers would have been lost when you reformatted your hard drive). Find out the manufacturer of the USB to serial adapter and search the manufacturer's web site for a suitable driver.
Or post any visible part numbers and/or manufacturer identifying numbers of codes of the adapter and your PC's operating system (i.e. Win98, WinMe, Win2K or WinXP) and I'll see if I can find a suitable driver for you.

Regards
Paul

I had to buy one for my Sony Vaio since I guess serial ports are being phased out?

Anyways, I have the driver for my USB-to-Serial adapter if you'd like to try it. Lemme know and I can upload it here in a .zip file :)

Also there's USB to serial adapters which don't work well with autotap. It's kind of hit and miss, but search some of the old posts and you'll find what brands of adapters people have used without problems. One piece of advice I can give is to stay away from the Belkin. That brand always crashed autotap with communication errors for me anyways. I actually bought some off-brand after the Belkin because it was the only one I could find on short notice in a small town and it works for me just fine.

Here are the drivers for my USB-to-Serial adapter, in .zip format.

Download the one you need, unzip the contents, and point the device to the driver file within (click "have disk" when Windows finds the adapter after you plug it in and surf to the unzipped folder).

Hope this helps :)

Thanks for all the ideas guys I really think it is the driver for the adapter.

The adapter is a ST Lab USB-Serial.

I went to there website found the downloads and even could select the driver I needed but that is all the further I got. Either the website is screwed or my ISP is. I pretty sure its the website.

I will try them drivers above.


Thanks for all your ideas. I can't belive I never thought of a driver for the adapter. I feel like a melon head... :jest:

I will let you know if it works...

Alright man, keep us updated :)

Nope nothing that ST labs site is screwed. I tried to download it on the three out of the four computers I have here at home and nothing same thing everytime. Can select the driver I want but then it doesn't go anywhere after I click on the link. Well have to send off an email tonight yet.

Unziped and tried the drivers listed above but when I go to select the drivers for "unknown hardware" for the hardware I can't select the driver. So it doesn't see them I guess.

I think the key is them ST lab drivers.

Thanks again....., want to get that laptop up and running so I can upgrade to a better version of Autotap....

Whammmy... After some searching found the driver on some driver website,the St lab site never did work. Plugged it in and it works fine. Now to get V7 of AutoTap or Dynotune...?

Thanks for the info guys....