Pololu USB AVR User Manual
Page 11
If you use Windows XP and experience problems installing the serial port drivers, the cause of your problems
might be a bug in older versions of Microsoft’s usb-to-serial driver usbser.sys. Versions of this driver prior to
version 5.1.2600.2930 will not work with the USB AVR programmer. You can check what version of this driver
you have by looking in the “Details” tab of the “Properties” window for C:\Windows\System32\drivers\usbser.sys.
To get the fixed version of the driver, you will need to either install
or Hotfix KB918365. Some users who installed the
hotfix have reported problems using the programmer which were solved by upgrading to Service Pack 3, so we
recommend Service Pack 3 over the hotfix.
After installing the drivers, if you go to your computer’s Device Manager and expand the “Ports (COM & LPT)”
list, you should see two COM ports: “Pololu USB AVR Programmer Programming Port” and “Pololu USB AVR
Programmer TTL Serial Port”. In parentheses after these names, you will see the name of the port (e.g. “COM3”
or “COM4”). If you expand the “Pololu USB Devices” list you should see an entry for the Pololu USB AVR
programmer.
Pololu USB AVR Programmer User's Guide
© 2001–2014 Pololu Corporation
3. Getting Started in Windows
Page 11 of 54