[LakelandARC] USB to RS-232 Device/Dongle Warning

[Mike Phillips]

To more succinctly illustrate the root issue, the counterfeit chip creators have duplicated the hardware IDs, in addition to the function of the hardware itself.  So trying to identify the (counterfeit) chipset by looking at the ID tags in device manager is fruitless, likewise when the driver is flagged to be updated, it will update without regard to whether you have genuine or counterfeit chips. There's not a lot an end user can do here except return their bricked device back to whomever they purchased it from. My thinking in this case is the early bird gets the worm in the if the vendors are going to be flooded with return requests, only the first few are gonna get attention before they close the floodgates.   
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There been alot of chatter on this on the net over the last couple days:
FTDI Reportedly Bricking Devices Using Competitors' Chips. - Slashdot      

  
             
FTDI Reportedly Bricking Devices Using Competitors' Chip...
janoc writes It seems that chipmaker FTDI has started an outright war on cloners of their popular USB bridge chips. At first the clones stopped working wit...  
View on hardware.slashdot.org Preview by Yahoo  
  
Mike KJ4UKY









________________________________
 From: "larc2 at evanszone.com [LakelandARC]" <LakelandARC at yahoogroups.com>
To: LakelandARC at yahoogroups.com 
Sent: Thursday, October 23, 2014 12:12 PM
Subject: [LakelandARC] USB to RS-232 Device/Dongle Warning
 


  
If you own a USB to RS-232 Dongle that you are using with Windows, and it uses the FTDI chipset, you might want to consider NOT upgrading to the latest FTDI drivers. FTDI's new driver will brick (as in render useless) any device that uses a fake FTDI chipset. So before you upgrade, make sure you have a real FTDI chip by checking with the manufacturer or searching the Internet.

You can check the chipset used by looking at the driver in the Windows Device Manager.

This also applies to any device that has a built-in FTDI chip used to convert USB to RS-232.

More detailed info here:

Windows Update drivers bricking USB serial chips beloved of hardware hackers

 
       Windows Update drivers bricking USB serial chips b...  
The move to combat counterfeit chips leaves hobbyists stuck in the middle.  
View on arstechnica.com     Preview by Yahoo    

... and here ...
FTDI driver kills fake FTDI FT232?? - Page 1

 
       FTDI driver kills fake FTDI FT232?? - Page 1  
FTDI driver kills fake FTDI FT232?? - Page 1  
View on www.eevblog.com     Preview by Yahoo    



 
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