So I bought a shiny new laptop this week, loaded with Windows 7 on it. I hooked up my USB cable, had my driver CD in there, and thought I'd be ready to go. Bzzzzzrt! Wrong! Somebody has done somethin' to break stuff!

Even when I pointed Windows at the driver CD, it still wouldn't load the drivers. So I had to go to "Plan B".

All AKM USB cables are based off of either the FTDI FT232B or FT232R chips (and these chips use the same driver). I've never used any other chips. You can always find the latest drivers on the FTDI Web Site.

Click here to go to the FTDI Driver Download Page

Note that you need the "VCP" version of the FTDI Drivers. This stands for Virtual COM Port, which is what ALDL software requires in order to work.

Anyhow, for Windows 7, the AKM USB Driver install CD did not work for me. However, I went to the FTDI web page above and selected the "Setup Executable" version of their driver and downloaded it. I then ran it. It ran just fine, and the next thing I know my driver was loaded and my adapter was on COM3. I am going to start including the Executable version on new CDs, but since I have a lot of customers out there with these adapters, I felt I needed to post this information on my web site.

So, if you lose your driver CD, you can always find the latest Windows drivers, for all versions, on the FTDI web page. You wonder why I don't post them on my site? Well, FTDI updates their drivers fairly frequently, and I don't update my site all that often... so I'd always be a version or two (or more) behind. Go straight to the source for the latest drivers.

Note that they also have Help manuals for the driver installations as well. These are pretty good, and I do include them on the CD that I send out with the cables. If you're stuck, take a look at the Help manual.