[Tim'A]

The GPS I'm using is a no-name el cheapo. Linked to HERE.
The car pc is constantly hibernating and resuming, I upgraded from XP to 7 to speed up the process, and to help out my Solid State Drive (I hear 7 plays much nicer than XP with SSD's..)

In windows XP, it shows up as a "Prolific 2303 USB to Serial bridge"
Even the driver that comes on the install CD is simply a Prolific 2303 driver.

I downloaded the newest version straight from prolific's website. Try it on windows 7, and it says it's correctly installed. I plug my GPS in, and it says it has installed correctly under the device manager definition of a "Prolific USB-to-Serial Comm Port" .It also says the device is working properly, but when I try to use any GPS testing software, it says there's a communication error. But when using the same drivers and the same gps testing software on my windows XP system, it comes right up!

Is there anything short of buying a new GPS reciever or swapping my OS back to XP?

Thanks for any info in advance!

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Until someone comes by and knows what they are talking about...

To verify, you installed v3.3.11.152 drivers (part of the v130.zip download) from PL-2303 Software and Drivers, right?

If you are sure you have the latest driver, you might uninsall your current installation, and make sure you follow any install instructions precisely. Some times it matters when to connect the hardware. I usually like to install the software first, then plug it in and let the new hardware wizard find the driver already installed. But some driver packages look for the HW during the installation.

If reinstalling the driver does not work, and the computer and other USB devices work fine, then I think I might try the GPS on another Win7 computer to see if it is a Windows 7 thing or something with your hardware. BTW, did you ensure you old XP laptop was Windows 7 compatible before installing 7? Is Windows 7 working fine otherwise?

I found a couple reports of problems with that device and each time the recommended solution was to replace the USB cable. That's typically a cop-out troubleshooting suggestion, similar to, "is it plugged in?" "Is it turned on?" Sadly, there were no replies to say if a new cable worked. However, cables that are used and moved around frequently do break - typically there's a break in one or more of the the connector's wires, often unseen inside the molded connector, or the connector itself wears out and loses tension and can no longer make the necessary good mechanical connector in order to make a good electrical connection. So trying another cable is easy, and it removes the cable from the equation - a good thing.

See PL-2303 Drivers for Windows 7. It looks like this guy had some success with Win7. You might join there (if not already) and reply and ask him about problems, and what he means by "...those of you who are using the replacement cables ...".

[Digerati]

Until someone comes by and knows what they are talking about...

To verify, you installed v3.3.11.152 drivers (part of the v130.zip download) from PL-2303 Software and Drivers, right?

If you are sure you have the latest driver, you might uninsall your current installation, and make sure you follow any install instructions precisely. Some times it matters when to connect the hardware. I usually like to install the software first, then plug it in and let the new hardware wizard find the driver already installed. But some driver packages look for the HW during the installation.

If reinstalling the driver does not work, and the computer and other USB devices work fine, then I think I might try the GPS on another Win7 computer to see if it is a Windows 7 thing or something with your hardware. BTW, did you ensure you old XP laptop was Windows 7 compatible before installing 7? Is Windows 7 working fine otherwise?

I found a couple reports of problems with that device and each time the recommended solution was to replace the USB cable. That's typically a cop-out troubleshooting suggestion, similar to, "is it plugged in?" "Is it turned on?" Sadly, there were no replies to say if a new cable worked. However, cables that are used and moved around frequently do break - typically there's a break in one or more of the the connector's wires, often unseen inside the molded connector, or the connector itself wears out and loses tension and can no longer make the necessary good mechanical connector in order to make a good electrical connection. So trying another cable is easy, and it removes the cable from the equation - a good thing.

See PL-2303 Drivers for Windows 7. It looks like this guy had some success with Win7. You might join there (if not already) and reply and ask him about problems, and what he means by "...those of you who are using the replacement cables ...".

[Tim'A]

If you are sure you have the latest driver, you might uninsall your current installation, and make sure you follow any install instructions precisely. Some times it matters when to connect the hardware. I usually like to install the software first, then plug it in and let the new hardware wizard find the driver already installed. But some driver packages look for the HW during the installation.

Ughh.. Well first off, THANK YOU.
I can't believe I've had such a problem with this thing, just to re-install the driver and have it work perfectly!

I ran the prolific driver installer again, used it to remove the installation, restarted, re-installed, and plugged it in. It still showed up as a Serial to USB bridge, but when I opened my GPS tester, IT WORKED!

Well, it looks like it's a classic "INSTALL DRIVERS BEFORE CONNECTING HARDWARE" run about!
I've been looking into this thing for 3 days now.

Thank you so much Digerati, for taking me straight back to the drawing board. I just needed to take a step back and look at the basics.
So once again, Thank You!!!

[Digerati]

Thank you so much Digerati, for taking me straight back to the drawing board. I just needed to take a step back and look at the basics.
So once again, Thank You!!!

Well, I'm stepped way back from here! Glad you got it sorted out and thanks for the thanks, and the followup.

[dlw]

What GPS software are you using?
What company did you select? EG: Garmin, Tom Tom, etc.
I'm using Easy GPS and can not get a cheap USB GPS unit to work either.
I've uninstalled and reinstalled the USB to serial driver.
That did not help.

Any ideas?

Don