Customer Ratings & Reviews

This adapter will work on Windows 7 32 & 64 bit OS machines but you must manually download and install the driver. Follow these steps and you should do fine-- 1. Do not connect the adapter to your PC - just wait we will connect later 2. Visit this web page: http://www.prolific.com.tw/eng/downloads.asp?ID=31 You can see the link for the driver there. 3. Download the driver file: PL2303_Prolific_DriverInstaller_v110.zip 4. Unzip the download to see the .exe file 5. Run the exe to install the driver 6. After installing, I would suggest a reboot of your PC - can't hurt 7. Connect the adapter 8. All should work, check out he Windows Device Manager to make sure that the hardware is functioning correctly. Enjoy!

I read the reviews, figured I use it on my Vista system just to solve a problem as users said it would not work on Win7. Others said it was too short a cable. So here's a review for the IT Director of a medical software company, and systems builder/integrator/tech/etc for 34 yrs 1# Win7 installed/worked perfectly - even when I did it wrong by plugging it in before I found the installer CD. 2# Unplugged device and installed software, picked Win7 option, replugged cable - WORKED PERFECTLY, again 3# Length - THIS IS AN ADAPTOR, IT IS NOT an extension cable. 1st, if you are running RS232 you probably have a 9 pin M/F cable, use it. When I am on the road w/my tech-kit the last thing I want is long cables to carry around. I can use a USB extension cable or an RS232 extension, the length is PEFECT 4) For those having install problems on Win7 - did you plug it right into your computer or into an extension cable #USB)? Many USB extension cables are no good. Did you install the software that came with the cable or just plug it in? Did you look online for the Win7 compatible version. It works PERFECTLY 5) Price - come on, $35, and you're complaining? This isn't an extension cable #as you've noted#, it is a tech-device built into a cable. I'M THRILLED TO HAVE SOLVED THE PROBLEM FOR $35. If you're complaining about the price Dynex charges, go buy a Monster Cable. Only funky - never realized that Win7 does not come w/Hyperterminal. I downloaded the 30 day free trial from Hilgrave #original Hyperterminal writers), works great in Win7 64-bit. You can copy HYPERTRM.DLL and EXE from an old XP system but it only works on Win7 32bit, not 64.

1. You need to download the Latest from http://www.prolific.com.tw/support/files/%5CIO%20Cable%5CPL-2303%5CDrivers%20-%20Generic%5CWindows%5Callinone%5CPL2303_Prolific_DriverInstaller_v110.zip 2. It will work the first time you installed. Later if you reboot (after using it with an app) , windows will not load the driver. 3. I have an app running for 5 min (this app works with other serial ports) and crash the machine (Screen Blue of Death).

Based on these reviews, we went to Best Buy tonight and picked up this adapter. There were no instructions (because it was an opened returned item?), but set-up was still easy. Install the software from the CD and then use the device. It takes minutes. For XP, we chose the rather cryptic: Windows -> PL2303HXA -> SETUP -> wd_pl2303h-hx-x_v20019v2021 -> PL-2303 Driver Installer

This product works, as advertised. Saved me from having to replace some older medical equipment connected via serial ports to a W7 32-bit PC. No problem with drivers.

There is no documentation. There is no driver for Windows 7. Driver for XP on disk did not install. After half an hour of searching I finally found a driver that works with windows 7. (search PL2303 driver) Once installed it works great. At this point in time there is no excuse to be selling stuff that is not supported by Windows 7. What is worse is that there is no documentation about compatability.

i bought a dynex cable usb to serial port and it's work on window vista is good.i don't know how to other says is not work with vista. it's easy don't install to cd put usb plug in an automatically your window search for softwear.

I had problems with a cisco aironet, and it was inconvenient to take a large computer on site, so I only had a laptop. I sent for this product so I could telnet into the device using the serial port and it worked great on both the laptop running XP, and the PC running Vista. I heard complaints about Vista, but I just installed the driver, and plugged it in, and I was good to go.

Worked great right out the box on Vista. Allow it to get the driver from Windows Update. Do NOT use the included CD with Vista. Connect to the internet, plug it in, and let it do it's thing. Took a few minutes to get and install the driver, but after that it worked great.

Don't pay attention to the other reviews. People like me need this product for various reasons, like building a robot. This was an essential product to hook up my control arm to my beagle board. If you know what your doing this product is great to have lying around your workspace for various projects. I would recommend having more than one of these products if your a geek like me. I rated 4/5 stars because of the price, that Best Buy can easily drop.

I would only recommend this product if you are not using a 64 bit OS.

I work with USB-serial converters at work all the time. I was working from home recently and needed a converter. Didn't want to drive all the way into work, so I dropped over to Best Buy and picked up one of these. I followed the instructions in others reviews to download the Win 7 driver off the web. I got it working, but it's very flaky and after a while it will freeze the Win 7 OS. Locks it up solid, not even a blue screen. This product is a complete waste of time and is overpriced even if it did work reliably. Ended up having to restore my Win7 system to remove the driver.

I used this in my computer back when I had XP and it worked fine. But I've since moved to 7 and now onto 8. Both 7&8 are 64bit. This item installs drivers automatically but device manager complains that "This device cannot start. (Code 10) A device which does not exist was specified" I've tried all the drivers from both Dynex and prolific. No Go!!!. I was forced to order a cable and back plane from my MB manufacturer to be able to get a serial port.

I thought my problem of having a radio with a serial connection and none on my laptop was over when the sales person advised this product would work on windows 7 with out any problems! This product worked at first. After a while it started crashing my system. Then it had problems with the driver. That was the same driver which worked a month ago! I have tried several other adapters and have not found one that would work Do not buy this product!!!

I did everything I was supposed to do and it does not work. I read some of the reviews and I let Vista find the software without the CD and it just says it's not compatible. Any help would be appreciated.

This is a wonderful USB to serial adaptor for use with the Ubuntu Gutsy 7.10 distribution. If you have DOS-based software that requires a serial port, just edit your /etc/dosemu/dosemu.conf file with the command: sudo gedit /etc/dosemu/dosemu.conf and scroll down to the *** Serial Port Settings section and add this line: $_COM1 = "/dev/ttyUSB0" save and close the file and you're good to go. Hope this helps! This is a GREAT product.

I am a wireless network engineer with AT&T and I needed this product in order to console into cisco switches and access points in order to program this. My new company laptop is a brand new dell which does not have a built in serial port. I purchased this cable, hooked it up, the driver loaded automatically, and bam, I was connected to my switch. Works great.......

This worked very well for me. I needed a serial cable to configure some Cisco routers and switches via the console port and this worked perfectly. I installed the drivers for my Macbook by going to the website listed in the manual and had no problems. I also plugged it into a raspberry pi (running raspbian Linux) and it didn't require any additional drivers. I used minicom to access the Cisco CLI (minicom -s, set speed to 9600, 8N1, disable flow control, save), booted the switch or router and I got to the command line. Very nice.

This product was a bit difficult to install because the brand did not seem to match what the package said they were. Once installed, it did not seem to work well with interrupts. If you are looking for a USB to serial port equivalent to hardware on a laptop that likes to use hardware handshaking than pass on this. Some places this also says its only MAC compatible. It does work with WIN 7 but not well.

Of course, Macs don't come with serial ports (I don't think they ever have). This works with a Mac, plus it works with Parallels Virtualization software running a Windows environment. The only issue I've found is that there is no way to change which COM port it is reporting as under Parallels. In my case, it shows up as COM3.