Arduino drops serial connection on only some computers

[phdsamurai]

Hi

I have been using Arduino's for some time and have hit a perplexing issue. I have looked around but haven't found anyone with exactly this problem

I have an Arduino Uno connected to an RFID sensor which is in constant read mode. I connect the Arduino via USB serial to a computer and use PySerial to read the incoming data.

On my Mac Mini 2018, this works perfectly, with the Arduino maintaining the connection and sending data through. Ditto with my SurfaceBook 2. But if I try and use my custom built PC or my HP ZenBook Studio G4, then the connection constantly drops out and I need to restart the Uno.

The only topic like this I've seen, the suggestion was to update the USB drivers. I have done that on my PC but the ZenBook is a work computer and I don't have the admin rights to update drivers. Anyway, when I updated the drivers on my PC nothing changed.

My first thought was that the Arduino was browning out, but it's connected to a separate power supply, so it shouldn't be a power issue between computers.

If anyone has any advice, I'd be eternally grateful.

Thanks

[outbackhut]

Hello @phdsamurai. Welcome to the forum!

@phdsamurai

it's connected to a separate power supply

If you powering it from two sources at once, won't that cause rather problematic things to happen? I always hate it when people say - it's connected to my PC, but it's connected to a separate power supply as well. I don't know whether that could be a problem, but I don't connect two power supplies just on principal.
Maybe just try using only the PC.
Also you don't want to backfeed into your PC by having the second power supply .

[phdsamurai]

Excellent point.

I have tried it with and without the power supply. In all cases the Mac Mini works fine (with or without power) and the ZenBook doesn’t.

[outbackhut]

Interesting. I doubt it is a hardware issue unless it is on the PC end.