serial adapter on Win 98

[pjdestexhe]

Hello!

I USB 2.0-RS232 adapters, I need to use them with Win 98 but it doesn't work. I tried for hours ;-(

I have different computers, I have a serial port on one of my computers and it works perfectly, but on the other computers I need to use adapters and I can't make them work.

Do you have a suggestion? A driver?

Thanks for your help!

PJ

[RDPetruska]

First off, are you using Windows 98, or Windows 98 Second Edition (SE)?  If I remember correctly, USB support was introduced in Win98SE.  And only USB 1.0.  So, it may be a little tougher to find an appropriate driver for the USB-to-Serial adapter.

One possibility - Does the host recognize the adapter, and have correct drivers installed for it?  If so, you should have a COM port in your host via that device.  You should be able to add a Serial port to your Win98 VM, and point the physical port to that COM port number.

[pjdestexhe]

‌it's win 98 SE, I think the adapter works correctly on the host machine, ( I can't test it  because the device I want to connect only works with windows 98), I added the serial port on the windows 98 VM but on my 98 I see the com port unrecognized  in the peripherals.

THanks for your help,  some other suggestions?

[Tero_Ares]

Hello,

so i have beem sitting for 2 days to try and communicate with Mitsubishi PLC using Windows 98 and USB-to-Serial Adapter. I finally managed to do it and here is how:

- First i plugged in adapter to my host Windows 10 (build 1903) and let it install needed drivers. I didn't download any special drivers from a website. It's a 2.0 USB adapter you can get anywhere.

- After that i went into my Virtual Machine settings. I am using Windows 98SE - German version. I added the Serial Port and set it to use a physical serial port -> (COM1). Before that i also set in device manager on my host that my USB-to-Serial adapter should use the COM1 port. When i left this setting to auto detect it didn't work. If you cannot find here any ports turn off whole WMWare software and plug in adapter and then again start VMWare. After that i could see my adapter in drop down list.

- Turn on your Windows 98 Virtual Machine. Here it should tell you it found new device and needs to install drivers. In this step it shouldn't matter for you, if you can find the drivers or not. I went on the internet to find the drivers for serial communication "serialui.dll" found on this website (https://www.dlldump.com/download-dll-files_new.php/dllfiles/S/serialui.dll/5.1.2600.0/download.html) and pasted it under C:\Windows\System. I went to Device manager, completely removed my COM port so that Windows 98 with next reboot will try to install the drivers again, but this time with this new one.

- After that i opened my Software. In this case Medoc 2.30 from Mitsubishi and set up my Transfer. For me it was:

Bit rate: 9600

Word length: 8

Parity: odd

Stopbits: 1

Station: 0

Port: COM1

It didn't work on the first try. Since i am using a COM port on my Windows host and just connecting it with my VMWare guest i had to set up my port exactly the same as in Software.

And here is very important detail. For me it still wasn't working. I couldn't communicate with my PLC.

- So the last thing i had to do was to go in Advanced setting on my Windows host COM port and turn off the setting "Use FIFO buffers".

After all that i was able to communicate with my PLC using VMWare Workstation 15 with Windows 98.

I hope this might help someone.

Cheers,

Tero