Apparently they use a CH340G chip to communicate with the computer. I have installed the drivers in advance (in-advance, according to the installation software because the Nano was not recognized at all by the computer) for the CH340G on Windows 10. However, whenever I plug the "Nano" into my computer, there is no recognition that it exists at all. I have used all of my USB ports, a different Nano board- there is no sound, nothing changes in device manager, the Arduino IDE does not show it available, but the Nano receives power.
Please let me know what to do at this point. Thank you.
Do other CH340G devices work? Check with those to make sure your drivers are installed right. Does anything appear in device manager with the nano in question plugged in?
Cheap clone nano's have a non-zero DOA rate, which is hardly surprising when you imagine how hard they must be cutting corners to get prices like that - some people here have described finding poor solder joints on the clone boards (likely around the USB connector). A lot of the 99 cent USB-serial adapters (the black ones) have bad solder job on the USB connector. We all just deal with occasionally having a DoA board, since they cost less than a cup of coffee. Have you tried more than one of those?