Problems with USB connection from radio to computer

[WA9SVD]

Yeah, I remember when Windows 95 came out, and "Prug and Pray" was born.

Back then, we had to do a lot of work in the computer's CMOS setup to exclude IRQ's and port addresses so that we could continue to use our 8-bit and 16-bit ISA cards for things like extra serial ports... even running 4 serial ports (2 dial-up modems, a mouse, and a serial null-modem connection to my other computer to log in to the virtual node on my BBS) was a challenge.

I'm so glad that PnP has come as far as it has. Even the worst PnP problems today pale in comparison to the manual setup hell we had in the 80's and early 90's.
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so back to the original topic...

the thing I forgot to mention in my post is do not buy a Prolific serial port. For some reason, the Prolific drivers tend to crash every 64-bit computer I use them on. I can't even use my external GPS dongle and mapping software for t-hunting, because it crashes after about 10 minutes.

Here is the adapter I use with my TS-2000, and it's as stable as a rock: http://www.google.com/products/catal...ed=0CFsQ8wIwAA

I'm afraid I have ol disagree. While there were some initial setup hassles with RS-232c ports on older motherboards and OS combinations, they were not THAT difficult to address, and once a stable configuration was established, it was just THAT: STABLE. it didn't "get lost" the way USB connections can at random intervals.
PnP may work in most cases, as long as the manufacturers (including Microshaft) adhere to the published specs. MS changed SCSI PnP support between Win95 and Win98; after troubleshooting (troublemaking) with Microshaft Tech support on a daily basis foir 30 days, without a solution, only Adaptec was able to identify the problem quickly, and the solution required turning off PnP, because MS changed the way it was implemented. In that case, it was "Plug and Curse," because it wouldn't play.

[VA3CSS]

And actually, truth be told, Windows 95, the original edition, had no support at all for USB. It wasn't out just yet.

Some bug fixes later, Windows 95A was born, (OSR-A). That also, had zero USB support.

It wasn't until Windows 98 was released that Windows 95 had it's last release: OSR-B, which supposedly supported USB for the first time.

Anybody who had Windows 95 OSR-B can tell you - only 20% of USB devices at the time actually worked, and ONLY if the manufacturer supplied you a driver for it. Hell, even memory sticks needed a driver for 95b... oy ve...


For that, and many other reasons, (BSOD, anyone?) M$ quickly dropped support of 95 and pushed upgrades to 98.


Even then, it took them until 98SE (Second Edition) to get USB 2.0 support down and working properly; with no drivers for most devices; and no more BSOD on plugin.

Not bad, considering that all Windows 98 really was was DOS 7 with a GUI.


I never actually ran 98 or it's more bug-ridden replacement, ME. I skipped from 95A to Windows NT; then 2000 Professional, dual-booting with Linux.

And the rest is, as they say, "history."