I'm trying to instal an HL340 USB to serial cable on a Xp Media Center OS. I've used these cables a hundred times before, and usually once plugged in it will come up in the device manager under COM and LPT ports. I'd then install the HL340 driver that comes with the cable and it would work. Thing is, with this computer I'm trying to use it on now, it's coming up in the device manager as USB2.0-Ser!, and there's no driver I can find that will work. I've taken the cable and plugged it into another computer running Xp Home and it comes up like it should (COM and LPT ports) and works great. So... I know it's not a bad cable. Any ideas?

Are you installing it to the USB2 (2 being the point) on the rear of the computer?

It's actually a Toshiba Satellite laptop. It has 2 ports on the side and 2 on the back. I've tried all 4 seperately but always the same result...

Please update all your Toshiba drivers from your Toshiba support page
You may also want to download the Manual and confirm USB2 exists on any/all ports

I usually do a Windows update (Custom) as well to confirm all drivers are up to date
Plus it is wise to confirm all Service Packs and security Updates are complete

It also could be a Virus/Trojan causing this issue, so you may wish to do a full scan

Lastly check in CMOS (usually DEL or some other keypress on system startup to get into CMOS setup) Check all USBs are enabled, there may be other options on your USB settings as well

I completely updated windows, and I also ran full virus/malware/spyware scans cleaning anything that was there out. I checked the Toshiba website but there were dozens of drivers and I wasn't sure which ones I might need. Lastly, I checked the CMOS and anything USB related was enabled.

Toshiba Drivers page:
http://www.csd.toshiba.com/cgi-bin/t..._sc_modSel.jsp

You still need to update the Toshiba Drivers

Which drivers do you mean though? I have an A100 so I have to go to the toshiba.ca page to get the drivers...

Update. I ended up solving my issue. I found an alternate driver for the HL340 that had an uninstall option within the application. I uninstalled the driver while the cable was still plugged in, then removed the cable and reinstalled the driver. Once this was done I plugged the cable back in and it came up HL340 in the device manager instead of USB2.0-Ser!. The found new hardware wizard still came up, the drivers finished loading automatically and it was good to go. It's just weird because using the exact same cable I never had to do that before. Oh well... Issue resolved. Thanks for the help once again Kimsland!

Please provide link to this driver
Because I went all the way through your drivers page (earlier today) trying to work out "which one"

htt p://somewebpagelink

Thanks for checking that out for me. The driver is actually on a disc that was given to me (Not the one that came with it). Am I able to attach to the thread?

No, only up to 200kb (ie not much)
You could attach the inf file in the extracted setup folder, that's about all
Otherwise you need to upload it to Rapidshare (or some file hosting site) then link to here

Here's the rapidshare link for the file:

http://rapidshare.com/files/147263019/HL-340.EXE.html

So here it is (extracted then zipped up again, from your link)

Attached Files

HL-340.zip (70.8 KB, 1279 views)

I can't get HL340 USB/serial to work on Vista. Does it need a special driver, or are there any other ways to get it going? I'm using Toshiba Sat Pro L300.

Original post

Went into Device Manager and found the VID/PID for my cable (1A86:7523). Searched and searched and found it was a HL-340 device.

Found working drivers for HL-340 on WinChipHead.com. It's Chinese but following the various links I found the download page. I found a PDF for the CH340, but only found a driver link for CH341. Downloaded, installed and VOILA! My HL-340 USB-Serial adapter now works using the CH341 drivers.

Winchiphead.com/index.htm

Drivers - winchiphead.com/download/CH341/CH341SER.ZIP

http://www.winchiphead.com/download/CH341/CH341SER.ZIP

In case this link goes down, seeming it's the only one I could find
I'm attaching the patched Zip file that you said worked, using that link above

Attached Files

CH341SER.zip (127.0 KB, 558 views)

I just bought also HL 340 usb to serial cable and have tried all above mentioned drivers and it still does not work. When the device connected to usb port of my notebook the error mesage is "USB device not recognized. One of the usb devices attached to computer has malfunctioned and windows does not recognizes it". In device manager it only recognizes the device as unknown device without driver installed. I tried various way to install driver just still does not work.

Thank you jools1976!!!

I was having the exact same problem with my Toshiba Satellite laptop. Same OS, etc. I desperately needed to connect my generic HL340 USB to DB9 serial cable to my laptop, so I could connect to my router's console port through HyperTerminal. I've been looking for a solution for several days, to no avail, and then found your post. I cannot say enough about what a great help you've been!

HL-340 drivers: winchiphead.com/download/CH341/CH341SER.ZIP

Thanks Kimsland

I am a complete novice so please forgive my naivity. I downloaded your file to my desktop, it appeared as a type of blank read file, no exe. or similar. I installed Winzip as I use Winrar, just in case that was the problem but still same. How do I open the file?.
I am running Vista 64 and cannot use the usb-serial adapter as mentioned in previous comments.
I purchased it from Amazon, they sent me a disc with the driver on, but it doesn`t work, I think it`s because I`m using Vista 64.
Many thanks for your patience.