My win7 computer won't recognize my uno

I having trouble with my arduino uno being recognized by my Windows7 computer. (and i have tried it on all 4 of my computers) It comes up as unknown device in device manager instead of arduino uno. Every time I try to install the driver it fails. Plz help
Thanks,

It's the r3 uno too

Make sure your "drivers" folder in your Arduino installation contains a Uno R3 inf file. It is included in 1.0.

I just tried that and now it shows up as arduino uno r7 but then ide still cant program it.
please help

ausman08:
I just tried that and now it shows up as arduino uno r7 but then ide still cant program it.
please help

What does "still cant program it" mean? Is there an error message? Does the serial port show up in the IDE?

the serial port shows up and i get the error "avrdude: stk500_getsync(): not in sync: resp=0x86" and the anytime the board is connected the L light is blinking

he on the wrong com port

the device manager says com3 and thats what i have selected on my arduino program

please help

Do you have the right board selected in the Tools menu? Did you check the troubleshooting guide? http://arduino.cc/en/Guide/Troubleshooting#upload

yep and i checked everything in the troubleshoot page and it still doesn't work

I just had the same problem with my Uno R3... did you specify the install location for the driver? I kept choosing the wrong Unknown Device but now mine works. I just followed the install page at http://arduino.cc/en/Guide/Windows#toc4

I have a HP G60t (shame...) with Win7 SP1 64 bit.

I was having the same issue. Win 7 doesn't have the drives for it so you will need to install them.
http://www.ftdichip.com/Drivers/VCP.htm

digimike:
I was having the same issue. Win 7 doesn't have the drives for it so you will need to install them.
http://www.ftdichip.com/Drivers/VCP.htm

The Uno doesn't have an FTDI chip, so you don;t need FTDI drivers... the drivers are in the Drivers subfolder of the arduino-1.0. folder. You need to manually install them.

I got the driver installed and it says arduino uno r3 in device manager but i still can upload any sketches to it with arduino's program

ausman08:
I got the driver installed and it says arduino uno r3 in device manager but i still can upload any sketches to it with arduino's program

Did you select the right COM port? It's never COM 3.

yep i have the right com port selected

Please Help

Were all the computers you used to check the uno using Windows 7?

When you unplug the Uno usb cable, does COM3 disappear? And when you plug it back in, you get the Windows "new hardware" sound and COM3 is back?

Do you know anyone who has a computer with Ubuntu 11.10 installed? No drivers needed.

I had some trouble recently in combination with an USB hub. If you have one, completely disconnect it from your PC and have a direct connection between Arduino and PC.

The error message you get is a sign - as I have come to understand it - of a communication failure (timeout?) between the Arduino and the PC.