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Fixing USB misidentification — Parallax Forums

Fixing USB misidentification

sylvie369sylvie369 Posts: 1,622
edited 2010-04-26 22:30 in General Discussion
Sigh. I've just wasted an hour trying to cope with that Windows thing where it suddenly thinks that a USB device is a "Microsoft Serial Ballpoint". I'm trying to use my Parallax USB XBee board, which I've used with no trouble for several weeks. This time, however, when I plug it in, Windows thinks it's a trackball, and won't recognize it in my terminal program, and instead sends my mouse pointer all over the screen.

I can disable the device and uninstall in from Device Manager, but when I plug it in again, all that happens is that it reinstalls as a Serial Ballpoint. There must be a standard fix for this, right?

Comments

  • sylvie369sylvie369 Posts: 1,622
    edited 2010-04-23 15:14
    Oh wait, I think I got it. It appears as a device under Mice and other Pointing Devices, and when I uninstall it there I get back my XBee receiver.

    Never mind (unless you have some good advice on how to stop this from happening again at some random time in the future).
  • Chris SavageChris Savage Parallax Engineering Posts: 14,406
    edited 2010-04-26 19:00
    Okay, and now for the magic reason why this happens...for some reason Microsoft detects serial mice and trackball controllers by detecting data at the port when the device is enumerated. The trick is to make sure when you plug in any USB to serial device that the microcontroller or other device is not transmitting data to the PC. I hope this helps. Take care.

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    Chris Savage

    Parallax Engineering
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  • sylvie369sylvie369 Posts: 1,622
    edited 2010-04-26 22:30
    I'll try to keep that in mind. I'm definitely interested in demystification of this bizarre problem. Thanks.
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