I fell into the "pl2303hxa phased out since 2012" issue today

I needed to access two #Fortinet #FG-80C devices (to confirm they worked, ensure they had the default UID/password and configs, etc)

So I grabbed the trusty no named #serial to #USB #serial2usb dongle and a #cisco labeled crossover

Went to use my #Thinkpad running #win11 and after updating the drivers using Windows update received the dreaded "pl2303hxa phased out since 2012, please contact your supplier" message - and would not tell you what #COM port was configured.

Well, #WTF ?!?

Some further research has two theories on the motives by #Prolific (the makers of the #chipset used in the #dongle )
1) Prolific wants to sell more hardware. Which, go #DIAF #Prolific, nice way to backdate planned obsolescence
2) Seems a ton of fake, cheap dongles use a fake chipset based on Prolific's design. Prolific released a driver that identifies these cables, and will not allow the use of their driver for these fake dongles.

Again, go #DIAF Prolific. I can relate to the issues involved here, but go after the fakes not your customer base. I have no idea how long this dongle has been in my toolbox, or where it came from - and I'm certainly not going to throw away a perfectly good dongle.

There is a solution, follow along on this #github page and install their driver from 2008 that does not conduct this chipset check. All will work fine.
https://github.com/polachp/pl2303-legacy-w11

This has a great walk through with #screenshots :
https://indiaoncloud.com/prolific-pl2303-phased-out-since-2012-please-contact-your-supplier/

This person did an amazing analysis on the actual code:
https://misc.daniel-marschall.de/patches/prolific_drivers/

Other References:
https://haprofs.com/pl2303hxa-phased-out-since-2012-please-contact-your-supplier-solved/

https://saptaji.com/2024/01/19/usb-to-serial-pl2303hxa-phased-out-since-2012-solution-in-window-11/

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