bigleg

Now that I've fixed my drive, I'm looking for the firmware update. The drive came out of a Lacie, so Seagate says they won't help me (ridiculous). Lacie hasn't responded yet. Does anyone have the firmware update for my drive? Its information: ST3500620AS, firmware LC11. I would greatly appreciate getting a copy of this so I don't have to deal with either company's customer service.

Finally got this to work. I tried 2 Nokia CA-42 cables and one "PC USB to RS232 Module Based TTL FTDI FT232BM/BL Chip", all without success. Just got a "Serial Converter USB 2.0 To TTL UART 6PIN Module CP2102", which worked flawlessly. I followed the instructions and had no issues whatsoever. My drive is once again alive after 2 months of trying! I highly recommend the device I used: Serial Converter USB 2.0 To TTL UART 6PIN Module CP2102. All I had to do was connect RX and TX and it worked perfectly! Awesome!

I find that very weird, to say the least A USB-port already carries a solid 5V power supply, why need an external one? Well I'm curious, so keep us updated on your progress. Peter. Not surprisingly, applying 5Volts didn't work.

So indeed... it *should* be detected by Windows as new hardware (offering to install its drivers). Have you tried to connect the interface directly to a mobo's USB-port? Some USB devices don't like to be connected through an (external) hub. Have a look with a magnifying glass to see if all solder-joints are good. (Sorry... couldn't come up with better ideas at the moment) Greetz, Peter. I have already read through the manual, as well as a lot of other troubleshooting documentation found on the website. One of the documents directed me to Microsoft's "USBView" application. According to one of FTDI's documents, if the device doesn't show up in USBView with at least a Product and Vendor ID, it is extremely likely the there is a hardware fault Document link: see page 14. Interestingly, the seller wrote back to me saying they talked to the factory, and it DOES need +5V. I am skeptical, but will try this to appease them. Yes, I have tried connecting to mobo USB ports as well as my PCI port. This is irritating as I've already tried two CA-42 cables, both having their own particular problems.

The first possibility seems unlikely to me, since all USB devices I have used to date are immediately detected at least as an "unknown device". Also, the drivers I have are not .exe, they require manual install. Is it possible the TTL side of the device must be connected to something (TX, RX, GND, & VCC) before the device is connected to the computer? Does this thing need external power? I would think not, given it should be powered via USB.

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Hi there, Just received this USB-TTL adapter: Adapter Link Unfortunately, when I connect this adapter to my computer the computer makes no indication that anything has been connected (no popup in the taskbar and the device manager doesn't refresh or display any new devices). I have tried this on two different computers and I've plugged the adapter in with and without VCC connected to GND. Any suggestions?

That worries me a bit Normally, a COM-port is only opened when an application (like HyperTerminal) or a service (like MS ActiveSync or the Nokia Suite) is actively using it; if you would only install the drivers without any program (or service) using it, you *should* be able to open that port like any other ("real") COM-port, no matter where the USB-device was made... Are you sure it's using COM2, since with most desktops, these are already integrated onto the motherboard and any external attached (USB)-ports get additional numbers (COM3..COMxx). Please check the settings in the computer's BIOS whether any on-board COM-ports are enabled or not and play with these settings. Good luck, Peter. It was the wrong type of CA-42 cable. Got another one and it opens correctly in HyperTerm. At first, connecting the blue and red wires gave me the characters I was typing (looking good!), but now for some reason, I get gibberish at 38400 baud and higher. 19200 baud and lower, it's fine. Ugh, time for another cable? Does anyone know how to figure out which wires are which using a multimeter? Is it possible that connecting the wrong wires together during testing screwed up the cable? Is anyone out there willing to send me a cable they know works? I'll happily pay for shipping both ways.

Tried manually installing the driver and the result is the same. The cable driver appears to be installed correctly, it shows up in the device manager under PORTS as "Nokia CA-42 USB (COM2)", but I still get the "Unable to Open COM2. Please Check Your Port Settings" message. I've tried this on two different computers running windows xp. This is frustrating, I feel like I'm so close to getting all of my data back! UPDATE: Just noticed my cable doesn't have a "made in" sticker on it. I'm now ordering one that says "made in China".

Cool, I'll give it a shot, thanks!

Hey all, I am running WindowsXP, and I'm attempting this using the Nokia CA-42 cable. The cable installed correctly and shows up in the device manager as a COM device. I have cut the end off the cable and crimped jumper wires to each of the three leads. Unfortunately, Hyperterminal won't connect using the com port the cable is set to. At first I got a message saying the port was in use by another program, but I fixed that by uninstalling the software that came with the cable but leaving the driver on the computer. The error message I get reads "Unable to Open ComX. Please check your port settings." Where X is the port number as shown in the device manager. I've tried this with all other "COM" items disabled in BIOS and all of them on (serial and parallel ports). My cable is the only com port listed in device manager. I have tried: Changing the port number for the cable in the device manager. Disabling all non-essential startup and service items using msconfig. Connecting with the cable leads attached to the drive and unattached (although I think this wouldn't affect my error). I used a program called "portmon" to log the communication between hyperterminal and my port. Here's the report: 0.16314122 hypertrm.exe IRP_MJ_CREATE Serial2 SUCCESS Options: Open 0.00000381 hypertrm.exe IOCTL_SERIAL_SET_QUEUE_SIZE Serial2 SUCCESS InSize: 8192 OutSize: 8192 0.00000040 hypertrm.exe IOCTL_SERIAL_CONFIG_SIZE Serial2 SUCCESS Size: 0 0.00000034 hypertrm.exe IOCTL_SERIAL_GET_BAUD_RATE Serial2 SUCCESS 0.00000036 hypertrm.exe IOCTL_SERIAL_GET_LINE_CONTROL Serial2 SUCCESS 0.00000043 hypertrm.exe IOCTL_SERIAL_GET_CHARS Serial2 SUCCESS 0.00000044 hypertrm.exe IOCTL_SERIAL_GET_HANDFLOW Serial2 SUCCESS 0.00000030 hypertrm.exe IOCTL_SERIAL_GET_BAUD_RATE Serial2 SUCCESS 0.00000029 hypertrm.exe IOCTL_SERIAL_GET_LINE_CONTROL Serial2 SUCCESS 0.00000029 hypertrm.exe IOCTL_SERIAL_GET_CHARS Serial2 SUCCESS 0.00000030 hypertrm.exe IOCTL_SERIAL_GET_HANDFLOW Serial2 SUCCESS 0.05402632 hypertrm.exe IOCTL_SERIAL_SET_BAUD_RATE Serial2 SUCCESS Rate: 38400 0.00285265 hypertrm.exe IOCTL_SERIAL_SET_RTS Serial2 SUCCESS 0.00299006 hypertrm.exe IOCTL_SERIAL_SET_DTR Serial2 SUCCESS 0.00399649 hypertrm.exe IOCTL_SERIAL_SET_LINE_CONTROL Serial2 SUCCESS StopBits: 1 Parity: MARK WordLength: 8 0.00299053 hypertrm.exe IOCTL_SERIAL_SET_CHAR Serial2 SUCCESS EOF:0 ERR:0 BRK:0 EVT:0 XON:11 XOFF:13 0.00698539 hypertrm.exe IOCTL_SERIAL_SET_HANDFLOW Serial2 SUCCESS Shake:80000001 Replace:80000040 XonLimit:80 XoffLimit:200 0.00000032 hypertrm.exe IOCTL_SERIAL_SET_TIMEOUTS Serial2 CANCELLED RI:10 RM:0 RC:0 WM:0 WC:5000 0.02991895 hypertrm.exe IRP_MJ_CLEANUP Serial2 SUCCESS 0.02508913 hypertrm.exe IRP_MJ_CLOSE Serial2 SUCCESS Note the cancelled command three lines from the bottom. I have no idea what the information means. I've spent time searching this and other forums for information on my error, but have been unsuccessful. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!