Rs-232/usb adapter

steve2012

Hi guys,

It's been a liitle while since I've been on and it's been a bit since my last post. Anyhow, I've recently started to get back in to my studies and I purchased a rs232/usb adapter for the console cable as I purchased a new laptop. I am running 7 x64 and using Teraterm at serial Com port3. I connect to Cisco 851 and can see the bootup, it is very slow and it will not respond to any keyboard commands.

I installed the recommnded driver but am at a loss as to what the issue is. It is a generic adapter from ebay.

Any help or ideas?

Thanks

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Comments

JDMurray

I'm having a similar problem with a USB-to-serial port adapter (that I coincidentally bought off of eBay too) connected to a Windows 7 x64 laptop. I have three of these babies connected as COMs 6, 7, and 8 and had no problems loading the supplied x64 driver. Windows 7 sees them all just fine.

Using either Putty or TT Pro, I have no problem interacting with the console on my Netscreen 5GT. But when I connect to either my Cisco 2500-series or 2900-series boxes via their Console port, and using genuine console cables, I can do keyboard I/O for about five seconds and then the serial display freezes and is completely unresponsive to the keyboard.

Unplugging the Cisco boxes and connecting them to a Linux laptop running minicom shows they are indeed alive and responsive to keyboard I/O. Re-plugging the boxes back into my Win7 laptop still result in no response. I get the same behavior when connecting to a Nokia IP330 on its Console port too.

My COM settings are the standard 9600,N,8,1 with no flow control for the Console port. I've also tried flow control (XON/XOFF, RTS/CTS) connected to the AUX ports (on the routers) to no avail.

My assumption is that there is something in the electrical signalling from the Cisco and Nokia boxes that is freaking out the USB serial port x64 driver. If I exit the serial term app without closing the connection, or pull the USB cable without ejecting it first, the driver blue screens my Win 7 laptop. I may need either an updated driver or a more name brand USB-to-serial port converter. I should also try the same converters on a Windows XP system using the 32-bit driver to verify it's an x64 driver problem.

Just one of many stumbling blocks on the way to becoming Cisco-certified.

SharkDiver

I bought this one, and have had no issues.
Amazon.com: Keyspan by Tripp Lite USA-19HS Hi-Speed USB Serial Adapter, PC, MAC, supports Cisco Break Sequence: Electronics

I am using a Dell laptop with Windows 7.

Starky

I've never found a good x64 bit driver for Windows 7. Always locks up, blue screens. Most I found on ebay say they don't support Windows 7 64bit... I've always needed to create a 32bit VM and use it that way... kind of annoying!

Would be interested to know of any good cheapish adapter that works on 64bit!

MosGuy

I have the adapter by "cables to go" i.e: Amazon.com: Cables To Go 26886 USB To DB9 Male Serial Adapter, Blue (0.45 Meters/1.5 Feet): Electronics . While not the cheapest around, it works fine on Win 7 x64. Drivers available on the website & you can easily change its com port. To me it was worth the little extra for no fuss.

JDMurray

I just installed the x86 driver on a Windows XP 32-bit laptop and the results are the same or worse.

I really can't recommend USB-to-COM adapters identified as "Prolific USB-to-Serial Comm Port" that use the Prolific PL-2303 Serial Driver. Dead cheap on eBay, but apparently you get what you pay for. Now, if you will excuse me, I'm off to Fry's Electronics...

UPDATE: I updated my installed PL-2303 driver with the newest (and very recent) release, but with not much better results.

steve2012

Thanks,

I'll try one of the recommended links and see how that goes.

Steve

alxx

We use lots of the easy sync adaptors that use the ftdichip converters.

Work well on xp , win 7 (32 and 64 bit), mac osx (10.4 thru to 10.7) and linux (32 and 64 bit)

On linux have used them with redhat 4,5 and 6 , centos 4 and 6, and fedora 32 and 64 bit on kernels 2.6 up to 3.1 with no problems
USB to Serial Adapter

steve2012

Picked up a generic adapter for $20.00 at local tech shop, works fine. Using the vista 32bit drivers for it and there are no issues.

Steve

advanex1

I've had no issues with the diablo hardware store that I purchased mine from. Seem to work pretty well so far.

CodeBlox

JDMurray wrote: »

I just installed the x86 driver on a Windows XP 32-bit laptop and the results are the same or worse.

I really can't recommend USB-to-COM adapters identified as "Prolific USB-to-Serial Comm Port" that use the Prolific PL-2303 Serial Driver. Dead cheap on eBay, but apparently you get what you pay for. Now, if you will excuse me, I'm off to Fry's Electronics...

UPDATE: I updated my installed PL-2303 driver with the newest (and very recent) release, but with not much better results.

I use a USB-RS232 adapter with XP (X86) without any problems. Works great without a problem in hyperterminal and teraterm pro. Only, It doesn't seem to work with Putty. If you want this driver, just send me a PM and hopefully you aren't already using this driver. It's a prolific driver. Also not sure if your problem is the hardware or the software but mine works without a problem when its not PuTTY

TIA568B

I've been using this with Windows 7 x64 which I've not had any problems with, it does seem to be PL-2303 based, but it seems to be the real chips rather than generic clones.
I bought a few different generic adapters off ebay and elsewhere, but I've not had them work with any system so I decided to go for the one above rather than trying to do it on the cheap as the cheap ones on ebay are useless.

JDMurray

That NEWLink quad USB-to-serial adapter looks just like what I need! Too bad it's only available only in the UK.

Starky

TIA568B wrote: »

I've been using this with Windows 7 x64 which I've not had any problems with, it does seem to be PL-2303 based, but it seems to be the real chips rather than generic clones.
I bought a few different generic adapters off ebay and elsewhere, but I've not had them work with any system so I decided to go for the one above rather than trying to do it on the cheap as the cheap ones on ebay are useless.

This looks perfect, thanks

Ltat42a

advanex1 wrote: »

I've had no issues with the diablo hardware store that I purchased mine from. Seem to work pretty well so far.

Where is this store? Website available??

ciscoman2012

Not sure if I can directly help with your current problems OP, but I have my eyes set on this adapter for my lab.

It's priced right around $11 and has great reviews for Windows 7 users running 64bit. TrendNET is the brand.

Amazon.com: TRENDnet USB to Serial Converter TU-S9 (Blue): Electronics

JDMurray

The TrendNET TU-S9 adapter looks very good in the reviews on Amazon. I'll try that one next. Thanks!

ciscoman2012 wrote: »

Not sure if I can directly help with your current problems OP, but I have my eyes set on this adapter for my lab.

It's priced right around $11 and has great reviews for Windows 7 users running 64bit. TrendNET is the brand.

Amazon.com: TRENDnet USB to Serial Converter TU-S9 (Blue): Electronics

MrBrian

Something interesting happened to me just an hour ago.. my db-9 to usb adapter stopped working. It is the TrendNET TU-S9 that some of you mentioned. While I was labbing, all of a sudden I was getting no output in Putty. I ensured the usb adapter was connected solid and it was. So then I close Putty and try to reconnect, but COM4 couldn't be accessed. I reloaded my access server just to make sure there wasn't a problem there.. also tried a different serial cable to connect to the adapter. Still didn't work. I couldn't see the COM ports in device manager. Figured my adapter was done.. so searched the forum and found this thread.

Then I decided to restart my computer just to make sure, and lo and behold it recognizes it now. I've had it for about 4 months. It's never done this before. However, occasionally it will cause my laptop to bluescreen.. probably has happened like 8 times at least, but I lab a lot. So like I said it is working again after I reloaded. I'll post here if I have any future problems with it

JDMurray

Blue screens involving a hardware device usually indicates a faulty device or a buggy device driver that needs to be updated. It's also possible that the device was freaked out by a transient voltage and it tweaked the USB as a result. Had you ejected the adapter and moved it to another USB port it might have worked.

MrBrian

Good to know. I just assumed it was because of the adapter because I never get a blue screen besides occasionally when I lab. I tried disconnecting the usb when it happens but the blue screen remains. So I just restart every time. As for the new issue where I stopped getting output in Putty.. not sure the cause for that. The only thing that fixed was restarting my laptop. It works smoothly 99% of the time though. Maybe I should try reinstalling the driver..