USB Upload drivers wont install on windows 8.1 32-bit

Using Arduino IDE 1.x
1

i cant seem to use the USB driver provided by arduino to upload my program. the program compiles just fine, but i cant select a port in the "ports" option. when i look in the device manager there is no driver. so i select "browse for driver software on your computer" and select the folder located at C:\ProgramFiles\Arduino\drivers and select "include subfolders" after which i proceed to press "next". it then gives me a message saying "Windows was unable to install USB Serial" (i have a non name brand arduino) with smaller text saying "Windows could not find driver software for your device. If you know the manufacturer of your device, you can visit its website and check the support section for driver software" what do i do?

2

Likely your driver has extensions for 64 bit machines. Did you have options when you downloaded that particular driver?
Paul

3

the driver is just the standard arduino driver used to upload programs to the board but i cant seem to find just the driver so i can reinstall it. so instead, i reinstalled the entire IDE, but windows 8.1 still doesnt reckognize the usb driver as a driver.

4

Please tell us which USB to serial adapter chip your Arduino board has. This is a black chip near the USB socket.

Examples:

atmega16u2

ch340
ch340675×541 159 KB

The chip will usually be identified by writing on the top. This might say something like "Atmel MEGA16U2" or "WCH CH340G" or "SILABS CP2102".

5

my chip is a CH34G 205686A34 and has a symbol beside it that kind of looks like the letter HDM (or WCH depending on which way you look at it.). (Please take note it was very hard to read the chip, so any digit i gave you could be wrong). it looked very similar to your second example, and if it helps, i am using an arduino mega 2560 which was made in china.

6

You can install the driver for that chip by following these instructions:

  1. Open the page on the Chinese manufacturer of the CH340's website that provides the driver downloads: http://www.wch.cn/downloads/CH341SER_ZIP.html
  2. Click the button with the cloud and downward pointing arrow to download the driver.
  3. Wait for the download to finish.
  4. Unzip the downloaded CH341SER.ZIP file.
  5. Open Windows Device Manager.
  6. Connect the CH340-based board to your computer with a USB cable.
  7. You should see a new device appear under the "Other devices" section of the device tree. Double click on it.
  8. Click the Update Driver... button.
  9. Click "Browse my computer for drivers".
  10. Click the Browse... button.
  11. Select the unzipped folder of the download from the WCH website.
  12. Click the OK button.
  13. Click the Next button.

The driver should now install successfully. After that, the CH340 -based board should appear in the "Ports (COM & LPT)" section of the Windows Device Manager device tree as "USB-SERIAL CH340 (COMn)" and the board should show up under the Arduino IDE's Tools > Port menu.

7

This topic was automatically closed 120 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.