Re: Driver Confusion!
Posted: Wed Oct 22, 2014 9:36 pm
Holy mother of pearl, it is indeed something deeper:
http://hackaday.com/2014/10/22/watch-th ... fake-chips
TL;DR: FTDI recently added a new driver to Windows update that detects counterfeit chips and bricks them by reprogramming the device's USB PID to 0000! This is exactly what has happened to both my Gamebuinos, as I've already reported:
All is not lost entirely, it is apparently possible to run the FTDI config utility under XP to reset the PID back to what it should be but if you ever run the new driver it will brick the chip again.
I know there are minors on this forum so I'll keep my language in tow but this is one of the most astonishing stunts I've ever seen a company pull. Punishing unknowing consumers for what is a manufacturing IP issue is incredibly unethical, and while I understand their need to curb what is a very serious problem I hope this backfires on them big time. This is yet another reason to do what the Arduino guys did, drop FTDI altogether and replace it with alternatives such as ATMega chips that have the added benefit of being easily reprogrammed as other device types.
http://hackaday.com/2014/10/22/watch-th ... fake-chips
TL;DR: FTDI recently added a new driver to Windows update that detects counterfeit chips and bricks them by reprogramming the device's USB PID to 0000! This is exactly what has happened to both my Gamebuinos, as I've already reported:
All is not lost entirely, it is apparently possible to run the FTDI config utility under XP to reset the PID back to what it should be but if you ever run the new driver it will brick the chip again.
I know there are minors on this forum so I'll keep my language in tow but this is one of the most astonishing stunts I've ever seen a company pull. Punishing unknowing consumers for what is a manufacturing IP issue is incredibly unethical, and while I understand their need to curb what is a very serious problem I hope this backfires on them big time. This is yet another reason to do what the Arduino guys did, drop FTDI altogether and replace it with alternatives such as ATMega chips that have the added benefit of being easily reprogrammed as other device types.