MSP430 LaunchPad value line USB-UART doesn't work anymore on Windows 8.1

Hi Karim,

Thanks for posting. I'd like to try to narrow down your issue, if you can provide a few more pieces of information:
-Are you running Windows 8.1 on a different machine than windows 7 or are you using a virtual machine?
-Can you tell if your PC with windows 8.1 has USB3 ports? Can you report the type of laptop/PC you are using?
-Can you show how the board shows up in Device Manager under COM ports?

Regards,
Katie

Hi Katie,

Thanks for prompt response.

- Yes, the machine running Win 8.1 is different than the one running Win 7.

- It has 2 USB 3.0 ports and 1 USB 2.0 port (Toshiba Satellite S55), but it doesn't work on any of them. 

- The board appears as "MSP430 Application UART (COMx)", where "x" is the port number and a USB composite device in the device manager. 

Thanks,

Karim

Hi Karim,

Sorry for the delay - I'm still looking into this. Your information that you provided shows that the device appears to at least enumerate correctly in device manager, so it is a different issue than my initial suspicion.

Could you provide information about what software you are using on the PC side for communicating over the COM port with the Launchpad? Can you share the settings that you use? Is there a specific error you are getting (e.g. the software can't open the COM port) or are you able to connect but then not get any data, or is the data simply incorrect?

Regards,

Katie 

Hi Katie,

No worries and much appreciated your follow up.

I tried to use Putty terminal, Energia built-in serial terminal, and a console app written in C++ to communicate with the COM port. The three apps didn't complain that the port doesn't exist or show any error messages, which means that the device is correctly enumerated as a CDC device, but it doesn't receive or transmit anything, the same apps work fine under Windows 7. So, simply, no data at all.

Thanks,

Karim

Hi Karim,

Do you use a USB hub in the Windows 8 case? If so, can you try without the hub? The reason I'm asking is because of this other issue that came in recently with similar sounding symptoms e2e.ti.com/.../582545

Regards,
Katie

Hi Katie,

No, I'm not using any hub, the connection is direct to the PC USB port.

Thanks,
Karim

Hi Karim,

Can you report what Rev # is silk-screened on the Launchpad?

In addition, could you try connecting the RX and TX UART pins on the eZ-430 connector and see if this loopback setup works with Win 8.1 with TeraTerm or whatever program you have been using? Basically, connect the RX/TX from the debugger together so that when you send something from the PC you should receive it also on the PC (taking the MSP430 totally out of the equation).

Regards,

Katie

Hi Katie,

The board revision is 1.5.
I tried connecting the TX and RX directly to get an echo via a terminal app as you said but nothing happened, it's not echoing.

Thanks,
Karim

Hi Karim,

For Rev. 1.5, the connection for a loopback case is slightly confusing - it needs to be like this - can you check if that's what you did?

Regards,

Katie

Hi Katie,

Yes, that's exactly what I did.

Thanks,
Karim

Thanks for confirming.

Hi Karim,

I don't have access to Windows 10 myself, but I was able to get someone in our tools team that works on the eZ-430 to look into this - they were able to reproduce on a Windows 10 machine that they have. They would like you to try something to confirm if the behavior is the same:

"One thing I found is that when you connect the G2 LP to the PC and connect via terminal on the virtual com port within ~3s the debugger does not answer. If I wait more than 3s after the LP has been connected, I do not see any problems.
Can you please double check if this is the same behavior?
"

So I think they are asking you to try plugging in the Launchpad, wait for some time, and then try to connect via the terminal program and see if it behaves any differently. Can you let us know how this goes? Thanks for helping us to investigate this.

Regards,
Katie

Hi Katie,

I'm using Windows 8.1 not 10, the problem isn't in the debugger, it works fine till this moment and I can program and debug the MCU normally, the problem that I can't establish a UART communication between the MCU and the board via terminal or any other application, even if I leave the board connected for few minutes then try it again it doesn't communicate over the terminal, also I tested it for echoing as you told me by connecting the Tx & Rx, the USB chip on board doesn't echo. However, it works on Windows 7 without any issues.

Thanks,
Karim