[time-nuts] USB problems and solutions - Some what Off Topic

[Cash Olsen]

I have been plagued with hard crashes of the computer when plugging in and
unplugging USB devices. I have generally determined that some of the USB to
serial devices are the worst offenders. I am also suspicious of some of the
hubs. I wander if even the operating system is partly to blame.

I'm using Windows Vista, and have several different USB to serial adapters.
Most are Silicon Labs and Prolific. I thought I had the problem resolved
with Prolific by over-riding the driver and installing an earlier version
but Windows may have updated the driver, that seems to be a common problem.

I'm coming to time-nuts because I remember that at least one member had a
very large number of adapters on one computer, so I'm hoping to find some
help. I don't generally seem to have trouble with other USB devices, just
the serial adapters.

One further issue, the COM ports are marked in use from 3 to 50+ and I'm
only using at any one time 3 or 4. Can I clean up the assignments and can I
make the assignments static after connect and reconnect or restarting the
computer?

-- 
S. Cash Olsen KD5SSJ
ARRL Technical Specialist