Cables & Drivers - Prolific & FTDI

USB Cable Drivers

FTDI / Prolific / SiLabs / WCH

Microsoft (tm) Drivers

May 2013, 2015, 2019
Rev 7/2020

John K3NXU Jim KC9HI

Important Notes - Read First

Your programming cable Must have the correct driver installed to interface with your computer. Some critical notes:
- Not all cables load the correct driver automatically.
- Not all provided CDs come with the correct drivers.
- Cable drivers are not interchangeable

By using Windows Device Manager, you should easily be able to determine which chip is in your programming cable.

FTDI chipsets
Cables with FTDI chipset (FT232R) will automatically download the correct driver when inserted into the USB port.

WCH chipset
Many Baofeng and generic programming cables are shipping with the WCH chipset (CH340/341). The driver should also download automatically. If not, the driver and procedure can be found at this Link.

SiLabs chipset
Drivers for the Silicon Labs chipset (CP210x) should also download automatically. If not the driver can be found at this Link.

Prolific Chipset
Nearly every programming cable that is detected by Windows as having a Prolific chip was manufactured with an unauthorized or cloned copy of the Prolific PL2303HXA chip. The latest driver installed by Windows (Vista, 7, 8.1 and 10) is not compatible with these chips. The last compatible Prolific driver was v3.3.2.105 [27/10/2008].

Windows may attempt to automatically load the Prolific driver 3.6.xx.xxx when inserting your cable. When opening Device Manager, the Yellow Caution Triangle may not appear, however, when the cable is inserted into the radio, the transmitter will turn on. This should not occur. It was done to prevent use of the cloned chip. More detail can be found Here.
If this occurs, you Must backdate your driver to 3.2.0.0
     (Go directly to Install Drivers)

Windows Device Manager
If Windows does not automatically load the proper driver, a caution message will appear in Device Manager. Example shown here is for a WCH340 chip.

Note: If you recently upgraded to Win10 and the V3.2.0.0 driver was previously installed on your computer, you will only need to select it again. See step 7 in the "Installing the Backdated Prolific PL-3203 Driver" section below.

Prolific Driver 3.2.0.0 recommended for Vista, Win7/8/10/11>
     3.2.0.0 exe     3.2.0.0 zip   (32/64 bit)

-   XP:
If you are using Win XP, the Prolific driver 2.0.2.1 will run with no issues. This driver for Win XP can be found here: 2.0.2.1.zip


-   MacOS
The recommended Drivers and Info can be found at the bottom of this page.

                FAQs and Error Messages

                Determine what Cable I have

                Installing the proper Driver 3.2.0.0

                MacOS - Drivers and Info Below

                YouTube Video describing the Procedure

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. This helps support the Miklor project.

Programming Cables

What UART chip does my cable have ?
Do I Have the Proper Windows driver ?

1) Insert your USB Programming Cable.

2) Launch Device Manager.

[ Start | Right-click Computer | Select Properties | Device Manager ]

3) Select: Ports (COM & LPT)

It is recommended that the driver be backdated to 3.2.0.0 if:

A - A yellow warning triangle appears under 'Ports' or 'Other Devices'
B - The Prolific 'Phased Out' message appears

Also, if you insert your programming cable into your radio, and the transmitter turns on, you will need to load the backdated driver 3.2.0.0 as described below.

Note:
        Your software will ask for this Com Port number later.
        If you change USB ports, the Com Port number will also change.

Note:
If Device Manager does NOT say "Prolific", Stop here.

There are several USB Driver chipset manufactures.
SiLabs, FTDI, WCH
The 'Prolific' drivers will not work with these chipsets.

Installing the Backdated Prolific PL-2303 Driver 3.2.0.0

System Requires 32/64 bit Windows Vista / 7 / 8 / 10 / 11 >

1) Create a work folder (New Folder) on your PC.

2) Download the Prolific 3.2.0.0 driver file and save it to the work folder.

     3.2.0.0 exe     3.2.0.0 zip    (32/64 bit)

3) Remove the USB programming cable from your PC.

4) Double-click the file that was saved into the work folder and follow the prompts until it is completely installed.

5) Plug the USB programming cable into the USB port of your PC.
You should see a balloon popup that says "Installing device driver software"

A few seconds later you will get a balloon popup that says
          "Device driver software was not successfully installed"

6) Launch Device Manager.

          [ Start | Right-click Computer | Properties | Device Manager ]

You will see one of the following errors in Device Manager.

In 'Other Devices' the 'USB-Serial Controller' is proceeded by a YELLOW warning.

          OR

In 'Ports (COM & LPT)' the 'Prolific USB-to-Serial Comm Port (COMx)' will appear.

7) Right-click on the entry with the error to open a window and select
          "Update driver software..."

8) At the first Update Driver Software prompt, select
          "Browse my computer for driver software".

9) At the second Update Driver Software prompt, select
          "Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer"

10) At the third Update Driver Software prompt, scroll down and select
          "Ports (COM & LPT)".

11) At the fourth Update Driver Software prompt, select
          "Prolific USB-to-Serial Comm Port Version: 3.2.0.0 [7/31/2007]".

You should get a prompt saying that the driver was installed successfully.
You should now see a properly installed Prolific driver in Device Manger.

You can check that the correct version is installed by double-clicking on the Prolific entry in device manager and selecting the Driver tab.

The driver version shown should be v3.2.0.0

12) Remove the USB programming cable from your PC and then plug the USB programming cable back in.

13) (Optional) Reboot your computer.

FAQ

FAQ 1
Q: My programming cable is not being recognized.
           (Handheld radios using 2 pin plugs)

a)   "Radio did Not Respond" or
      "Radio did Not Ack Programming Mode"   message appears.
         This is a very common problem.
         Slightly offset audio jacks could be the problem.

         Make sure the connector is snapped in all the way.
         Some cables require a really hard push to snap in that last 1/16 inch.

         One indication is that the transmitter may be keyed.
         A slight trimming of the cable's plug side and edge may be required.

Graphic by Mike KF5DEY


This message appears if the radio is not turned ON while downloading.

b)   "Error has Occurred, Could not open Com Port x"
          Each USB slot is connected to a separate com port to avoid conflict.
          Changing your USB slot will change the COM port number.

c)   "Run-time error 8020: Error reading from comm device."
          Error occurs if Prolific driver version is higher than v3.2.0.0
          You must Downgrade to v3.2.0.0

FAQ 2
Q: Why doesn't my new driver work any longer?

A:   The driver does not follow the cable. If the cable is moved to a different USB slot, Windows will now load the newest driver to that port. (not 3.2.0.0)

When this occurs, you will need to either load driver 3.2.0.0 to the new USB slot, or plug the cable back into its original USB slot.

You can check the driver loaded using the procedure above. Cable

FAQ 3
Q: Is there a quick way to find my cable's com port number?

A:   Yes. Run: Find Com Port    (Windows)

FAQ 4
Q: After changing the com port number of my USB cable in Device Manager, my software reported:
"An error has occurred - could not open port com[n]: (2, 'CreateFile', 'The system cannot find the file specified.')"

A: After making this change, you must unplug and reinsert your USB programming cable for the com port number change to be effective.

Note 1: If you are having com port / driver issues, please note this is NOT caused by your software. It's strictly between the PC driver and the cable.

Note 2: Each USB slot is connected to a separate com port to avoid conflict.
Plugging your cable into a different USB slot will change the com port number and will try to load the Newest Driver. Make sure the driver loaded for the new com port is 3.2.0.0

FAQ 5
Q: How do I prevent Windows 7 from automatically installing new drivers?

A:   This solution can be found at this Microsoft link.
Note: (This does not apply to Windows 10).

MAC Driver for Prolific Cables

PL2303 USB to Serial Driver for Mac OS X
Prolific Driver PL2303_v0.3.1

Mac OSX / Lion Drivers Tools

MAC Drivers and Links

Jim KC9HI


Build your own Programming Cable

Here's a project to convert your current cable to one
using a Silicon Labs CP2012 UART chip.
No driver errors at all.

Build Your Own Cable

My thanks to Jim, KC9HI for his hours of
testing and his input to this page.

73 John 'Miklor' K3NXU

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