hey so I haven't seen this myself but apparently the newest FT232 windows drivers reset the PID of the controller to '0' rendering it basically unusable

http://www.eevblog.com/forum/reviews/ftdi-driver-kills-fake-ftdi-ft232/

figured I would post this here, I know a lot of people buy the knock-off ebay cables which are probably affected

hackaday article: http://hackaday.com/2014/10/22/watch-that-windows-update-ftdi-drivers-are-killing-fake-chips/

apparently you can re-set the PID with their utility on winxp/linux: http://www.ftdichip.com/Support/Utilities.htm

Anyone found a programatic way of identifying fake FTDI chips? I've emailed FTDI asking how I tell if my chip is real or fake I suggest everyone else does the same.

Update from FTDI following coverage on zdnet, reddit, el reg, etc:

http://www.ftdichipblog.com/?p=1053

Theyre pulling the destructive driver and will push something out next week, but this sets a very awkward precedent.

A few weeks old, but still important information:

http://hackaday.com/2014/10/22/watch-that-windows-update-ftdi-drivers-are-killing-fake-chips/

http://m.slashdot.org/story/208837

So it may just be coincidence, but my laptop just did a windows update, rebooted and now the FTDI cable doesnt work. Anyone else having issues?

EDIT: So I decided to do some debugging...

The bad FTDI drivers set fake(?) chips to a VID:0403, PID:0000, when the chip should report 4003:6001.

I configured windows to never download drivers from windows update, then I set the PID back to 6001, plugged it in and let windows detect it with the bad (2.12.00 drivers), then hit 'uninstall driver, and delete driver', which causes the driver to be deleted from the 'Driver Store' - the internal database windows uses to locate drivers.

Unsurprisingly, the bad drivers had set my PID to 0x0000 again, so I reset that, plugged it back in and windows loaded up the drivers from January 2014, iirc the 2.10.00 set. Everything was looking peachy, so I fired up NEF and could talk to a spare me7.5 ecu. So I unplugged it again, plugged it back in, and surprisingly it wouldnt work again - because my PID had been set to 0000 again.

So I tested this a few times, set the PID to 6001, plugged it into windows, unplugged it and then checked the pid, everytime the windows laptop would reset the PID to 0000. So I went through and uninstalled all the FTDI drivers from the windows store, even with no drivers installed at all (not even the 2006 ones that ship with windows), when the port would appear as a 'USB Serial port, manufacturer: unknown, device type: other devices' and not work, it would reset the PID when I plug the cable in - so what the heck have FTDI left on my system?

I did a search on system32 and system32/drivers and it turned out quite a lot, so I first tried deleting all the files installed by the 2.12 driver pack - but that didnt work, so I used "pnputil.exe -f -d oem<xy>.inf" to delete the inf for my FTDI drivers. Along the way, I told windows to delete the old ftdi drivers too, given the wierd behaviour I've been seeing.

At this point, I can plug and unplug my FTDI lead without it zeroing the PID. I reinstalled the 2.10 drivers and I can still plug and replug it. Read a eeprom using argdubs tool, and flash file with nef and it all seems to be happy. Of course, it might break tomorrow!

Set the PID back to 6001 using linux, disable windows update for drivers, delete the bad ftdi drivers using pnputil, install the good ftdi drivers, your lead will work again

really, do ALL blue leads have fake chips? Shame, I like my blue lead!

I haven't yet found one, I emailed FTDI about this months ago, but never got a response. Maybe it's time to reach out again...