Problem with Windows 7&8

[GeorgeC47]

I have not used the Picaxe Editor for a few years. Previously I have run it on Vista and XP with no problem.
I installed version 6 on a Windows 7 PC and could not get it to recognise any COM ports.
The computer did not appear to even have any COM ports. After hours of searching and trying numerous 'fixes' the Windows 7 pc now shows Com6 after 'adding legacy hardware'.
However, the port is inactive and the Editor can not see it.

The Windows 8 pc is even worse. The device manager does not have an option to Add Legacy Hardware.

Any advice? (Other than to go back to the Windows Vista pc).

 

[hippy]

Are you using an AXE027 cable, and have you actually installed the AXE027 drivers ?

Are there any devices shown in Device Manager which have yellow triangle and exclamation marks alongside them ?

 

[GeorgeC47]

Hi Hippy, I was about to reply, Yes, Yes and Yes, but I decided to do another install.
I must have missed a step previously because now a Com port has magically appeared.
This is on the Windows 7 pc. I will try the Windows 8 now.

Many thanks!

 

[GeorgeC47]

All working! As they always say - read the manual....
I had not realised that you go through an update drivers procedure twice, so I had not done the 'Step 4 - Manually Install Virtual USB Port Driver'.
Getting too old for this techy stuff....

 

[hippy]

Glad it's working now. The usual problems are in not extracting the files from the downloaded .zip into a separate directory - Explorer fakes the .zip to appear as a folder but Device Manager doesn't see it as such - or not doing the second step.