Cannot Find Active Ports

[gary_k]

I think I am getting closer to solving this problem. On my old computer I have the same port setting as you mention but when I plug my machine in to my new computer it pops up as other devices – when I click on that it says USB Serial Controller D. I then double clicked on that and it shows I don’t have any Driver Provider. When I click Update Drivers, it goes to my C\Programfiles(x86) ShopBot \Shotbot3\Drivers when I click next it tells me windows cannot find any drivers.

So if I don’t have any drivers, where do I find them and how do I load them in. I have already tried shutting everything down and restarting the computer but that did not help.

[adrianm]

So if I don’t have any drivers, where do I find them and how do I load them in.

Links to the IOGear drivers are on this page - http://shopbottools.com/mSupport/drivers.htm - under the USB Drivers section.

If none of those work you can try the iogear site directly - http://www.iogear.com/product/GUC232A/ - I think this is the model ShopBot used and the download link for the drivers is at the bottom left of the page.

As for installing them some driver packages do it automatically when you run (if they're exe files for example) others require you to unzip them to a folder and then point Update Drivers to that location using the manual option.

[gary_k]

I finally got my new computer with windows 7 on my PRS alpha /4g up and running with the help from ShopBot support. The first thing you want to do is open up the control box on the ShopBot, to see if you have a straight USB connection... if you look inside the control box, does the cable go straight into the smaller control card? If so Windows 7 blocks our drivers from installing correctly. First, disconnect the ShopBot from your computer, then follow these instructions:
You'll need to turn off something called the UAC (user account controls) and re-install the USB drivers. To do this, click the Start menu on your desktop and type UAC into the search bar. The User Account Controls window should come up. With this window open, slide the bar down to 'never notify' and click OK.
The easiest thing to do next is to re-install the software, then plug your ShopBot back in and you should be good. If you look inside the control box, and the cable goes through to a 10" long USB to Serial cable, and then plugs into the larger control board the problem is that the installed drivers are not compatible with Windows 7.
Download the correct driver here (make sure to select Windows 7): http://www.iogear.com/support/dm/driver/GUC232A#display <http://www.iogear.com/support/dm/driver/GUC232A#display>
When asked, choose to save the download to a file location that you'll remember.
Once the download completes, open the device manager again and you should see something under "unknown" or "other devices" that indicates a USB/Serial connection. Right-click on this device and select "update drivers." A box will pop up, asking you to allow Windows to search for the driver. You don't want it to do that... when given the option, select "manually browse for the driver." Then browse to the location where you saved the driver download. If it installs correctly, you'll now see the ShopBot appear under "ports" in the device manager, along with a COM port #. Open the control software and if it does not automatically connect, select "connect under a different port" and choose the correct port #.

[mbeconst]

Thanks for the help. My Windows 7 shopbot computer has been running great......until I plugged my serial Garmin chartplotter into the serial plug for an operating system update, which worked fine. I didn't think of any consequences until I went to fire up the Shopbot today. My computer couldn't find the Shopbot. The original disk, which I found, didn't work and my computer wanted to load a Prolific driver, which didn't work. Your advice was spot on. Thanks, were back in business.

[kevinwood]

Gary K., Thank you, thank you. I have a 2004-2006 model PRT w/Alpha Upgrade that I've been trying to get working again and today I finally got it to power up with three drivers and motors locked in (Y, Z, Indexer). I think I've got bad drivers for X1 and X2 but I'll check them out over the next two days. However, I did not get to actually moving the Y, Z and Indexer motors yet because I was having, like you, problem with no Com port recognized. However, and I am so grateful to you, I took your advice in your post above and downloaded the active USB to serial adapter (it's a powered voltage level shifter to match the serial high voltage to the USB low voltage) driver from IO Gear from your link above. It's a one size fits all driver for almost every version of windows and OS. I've loaded the same package on both my Win 7 and XP laptops and the download is an automatic executable program file so you don't have to go through the hassle of manually hunting for and installing the right driver. For anyone else with an old system, PRT or PRT Alpha, just follow Gary's link again at: http://www.iogear.com/support/dm/driver/GUC232A#display <http://www.iogear.com/support/dm/driver/GUC232A#display