Cannot hotsync via USB/Serial Connect

[mhastings]

I gave my parents my old Palm V for Xmas. They have an XP Home laptop with no serial ports, but fortunately I had a Palm USB to Serial converter dongle so it could be plugged in via USB.

We installed the latest Palm Desktop 4.1 on the machine, and I picked "serial" for the hotsync connection option (as per instructions when using the USB / Serial converter). Afterwards, the hotsync icon in the tray had checkmarks next to both USB and Serial, which was a little confusing. Anyway, I then plugged in the USB converter + cradle. The machine recognized and installed a new "Palm Handheld" device, and I figured we were all set. Pushed the hotsync button on the cradle and nothing happened.

So I then looked around the Palm website and found a separate download for the USB to Serial converter dongle. It implies that it creates a pseudo-COM port, which might be what is missing since the Serial hotsync setup parameters were set to use COM3, but the Device Manager shows no COM ports at all (just an LPT1 port for their printer).

Unfortunately, the USB / Serial converter driver software doesn't want to install -- I tried via the "Add New Hardware -> Have Disk" approach, but it didn't think there was any hardware plugged in that matched that driver.

So I'm kind of confused about whether the Desktop 4.1 software supercedes / subsumes the USB Serial Converter driver, or whether I should have installed them in the reverse order or ??? And how specifically might I get out of this bind?

I'll also be honest and say that I personally never was able to get the USB Serial converter to work on my machine in the past, but fortunately my desktop machine had enough 9-pin COM ports that I didn't really need it. And my new Palm m500 USB cradle works just fine on my machine, so I'm wondering if the USB / Serial dongle thing is just generally unreliable.

Thanks for any tips,
Mark

[Ben S]

The Palm USB adapter has known problems with Windows XP. The Belkin one apparently fares much better. Whether the issue is with XP or the Palm drivers is a mystery to me.

[Jennifer S]

There are very specific instructions for installing the adapter on the download page, and it may never work if you don't follow them precisely. Also, some people have had more success with Palm Desktop 4.0.1 than Palm Desktop 4.1.

So, if you want to try the PalmConnect adapter one more time, I would do the following:

1. Uninstall the USB adapter.
2. Uninstall Palm Desktop completely as described here.
3. Reboot and shut down all apps, especially virus checking software.
4. Make sure the Windows account you're installing to has administrator rights.
5. Install Palm Desktop 4.0.1 from the link above.
6. Install the adapter's XP drivers following the procedure on the download page.

If all of that doesn't work, then I recommend purchasing the Belkin adapter. Many people have reported here that they were immediately successful with the Belkin adapter after struggling with the PalmConnect adapter.

[Xoanan]

If it shows up as 'Palm Handheld' that means that the drivers for a USB palm (like a m500/125/130 etc) have been installed rather than the USB adapter drivers. (During the 4.1 installation serial must be selected as the connection type.


As well the palm connect kit kinda piggy backs on another COM port. For example, right now if you have no COM ports listed in device manager, you aren't going to be able to get the adapter working, you'll need to have another port enabled first.

Don't ask me why this information isn't listed there, but its tried, tested and true.