BCD396XT/BCD996XT: Feeling Dumb

[KG6TTN]

Good Evening,

I have a 996XT, I also have a new laptop that is running 8.1. I cannot get the programming cable drivers to work, I have tried numerous things from this site and others and all to no avail. I hope there is someone on this forum that can break it down Barney style for me.

Thank You,

Chris Levi
KG6TTN

 

[kc2kth]

Chris,

I don't have the 996XT, so I'm not sure of the steps. However have you tried simply plugging in the cable (and I believe that requires a serial to USB adapter from what I just read) and allow Windows to determine if it has a correct driver? If you have already installed a driver you may need to remove that now before Windows will autodetect. Hopefully that helps. If not someone in here I'm sure will help out.

 

[kc2kth]

Chris,

I don't have the 996XT, so I'm not sure of the steps. However have you tried simply plugging in the cable (and I believe that requires a serial to USB adapter from what I just read) and allow Windows to determine if it has a correct driver? If you have already installed a driver you may need to remove that now before Windows will autodetect. Hopefully that helps. If not someone in here I'm sure will help out.

Perhaps what I read previously was about an earlier generation of the cable because it looks like ScannerMaster has a USB cable for the 996XT and offers a bit of (somewhat confusing to me) info on using the cable with Win8:

Uniden USB Cable

 

[ka3jjz]

Really it's not that confusing - there are undoubtedly folks out there using the original USB1 with the older chipset that Win8.x just doesn't like. That legacy driver they supply could be a lifeline to those folks.

However there are other USB cables out there that RR members have had success in using on Win 8.x. We have a short list of those, and much more on the issues about Win 8.x, linked in our wiki...

Connecting scanners via USB - The RadioReference Wiki

(blue text is always a link)

Go to the very bottom for a fairly extensive set of links on the subject.

Win 8.x made this a royal pain in the arse - unfortunately Win10 is likely to make this even more painful...Mike

 

[ccs247]

If you are using an older Uniden USB-1 cable with your Windows 8/8.1 system, then you must use version 1.5.0 of the Prolific driver. The older USB-1 cable contains the Prolific PL2303 HXA chipset that Is no longer supported by Prolific. The Windows 8/8.1 driver only supports the HXD chipset.

Go to the following link:

Uniden USB Cable

Scroll down to “Windows ME/95 Operating Systems”, download the 1.5.0 driver installer and install the driver.

 

[ka3jjz]

There are 2 other things to watch out for, as reported in several threads -

a. Don't let Windows update your USB drivers - make sure you do the updates manually so you can stop this from happening

b. If you have already tried some other divers, make sure to uninstall them before trying another one

Mike

 

[KG6TTN]

Thank you all for the replies I am going to try using the older drivers and hopefully report back success.

'73

Chris

 

[sihasapa]

You can ALWAYS manually program it. P.M me if you still need help

 

[KG6TTN]

Thanks all, in the end I broke down and ordered a new cable.

 

[KG6TTN]

So the new cable allowed me to update the firm ware but ARCXT can not see the radio. Any Ideas?

 

[scottyhetzel]

Go into control panel / device manager and check what's com port your USB driver is on,,,, also turn off all firewalls. Try a different USB port. Good luck..

I have a 996xt and arcxt too. I use the best USB adapter from keyspan. I program lighting and videos systems for a living, every manufacture I talked to via tech support told me to get one...It has never left me down. You can go into the device manager and find your adapter on the tree and find it......right click it "update driver" too. My favorite... Cycle power on all devices.