STM32F401RE Nucleo VCP Problems on Win XP

ve7su · ‎2014-04-23

Posted on April 23, 2014 at 19:00

Using Win XP. I've installed the latest firmware in my Nucleo board (LINK007). I've installed the drivers on my PC (LINK009). All is well with the USB Mass Storage but the VCP has a yellow '?' in the device manager window attached

I've tried updating the driver but I get the error window ''Cannot Install This Hardware''. I will say that I mistakenly connected the Nucleo to my PC before I first installed the drivers. I tried deleting the yellow '?' entry before installing the drivers then connecting the Nucleo to no avail. How can I rectify this situation?

S C · ‎2014-04-24

Posted on April 24, 2014 at 10:20

Hello,

If updating the driver of the shown VCP device does not work, I can suggest to try the following:

1. identify the Nucleo board that appears as an ''USB composite device'' in the list of ''Universal Serial Bus Controllers''. To identify it, check its Property-Details-Hardware Ids, it should contain something like Vid_0483&Pid_374b

2. once identified, try to update the driver of the composite device

3. if still not recovered, try to uninstall this composite device, then unplug the Nucleo and plug it again: the full enumeration process should run again.

4. If this still fails, there is perhaps a missing driver for VCP on this machine. If this can help investigating or recovering, on a XP SP3 machine the VCP is handled by usbser.sys, which is not installed by ST driver setup (because expected to be system-native)

chen · ‎2014-04-24

Posted on April 24, 2014 at 18:23

Hi

From the description of the unknown driver - looks like the issue is with the debug port

ST-Link

Not the VCP USB.

Make sure you are plugging in the right USB on the Nucleo

ve7su · ‎2014-04-24

Posted on April 24, 2014 at 23:32

Thanks for the suggestions...

1. The identity on the USB Serial Bus Controller was as you have noted.

2. Tried updating the driver -- I get the ''Cannot Continue the update - Can't find a better driver than already installed blah blah''

3. Uninstalled both devices, unplugged the Nucleo, plugged back in. Found new hardware (twice). Installed the USB devices - STM STLink dongle but not the ST-Link VCP Ctr.

4. Searched my PC for the usbser.sys files. I found 10 instances of this file of varioua dates. The latest date was 28/08/2008. There was a Hotfix listed on the Microsoft web site that appears to address the problem of ''The usbser.sys driver may not load when a USB device uses an IAD to define a function that has multiple interfaces, and this function uses the usbser.sys driver file in Windows XP.''. So I checked the date on this Hotfix usbser.sys file and it was dated 2004. So I did not replace the 2008 copy in my Windows/system32/drivers folder.

So now my situation hasn't changed. I did try to install the Nucleo on a PC with Windows 7 O/S using the driver proper file downloaded from stm.com and this was a success for both the VCP and the dongle. So I guess what I'm wondering now is if this is a common problem with folks using an XP machine?

Bill Dempsey · ‎2014-04-30

Posted on May 01, 2014 at 07:26

I too am having the same problem. No luck getting the VCP Ctr driver to install. Have Windows XP SP2. Have also installed the Windows hotfix for this ''issue''.

Does anyone at ST have a solution for this?

chen · ‎2014-05-01

Posted on May 01, 2014 at 10:52

First install the following (do not plug in the device, uninstall any device driver you may have installed):

http://www.st.com/web/en/catalog/tools/FM147/CL1794/SC961/SS1533/PF257938?s_searchtype=keyword

Make sure you pick the right version (32bit or 64bit)

Once the driver has installed - plug in the device and the VCP driver should install itself.

I have successfully used it on WinXP (32bit) and Window7 (32 and 64bit).

Bill Dempsey · ‎2014-05-01

Posted on May 01, 2014 at 16:35

Hi,

I did try your suggestion. I have also upgraded to XP SP3. Uninstalled everything, reinstalled. Still the VCP Ctr driver won't install....mass storage working, st-link working...

Any other suggestions?

Bill

chen · ‎2014-05-02

Posted on May 02, 2014 at 15:39

Hi

I was not aware that the Nucleo boards have a different VCP driver :

For XP try this link :

http://www.st.com/web/en/catalog/tools/PF260219

Un-install all existing ST drivers.

Unplug device.

Install Driver

Plu device in.

Bill Dempsey · ‎2014-05-16

Posted on May 17, 2014 at 05:20

Ok, solved! Turns out you *don't* want to follow the ST pages that tell you to install the ''XP'' driver (STSW-LINK009) -- instead install the ''Win 7'' driver on your XP machine and it works! http://www.st.com/web/en/catalog/tools/PF260218#