Hi, I need to use a USB serial cable to connect to a device. When the cable is plugged into a USB port, Windows sees it but says it cannot install drivers for it. I am not sure what I need here, so would like some help, thanks.

What kind of device is it that you need to connect? Normally a bare cable won't give that message. Is it a cell phone?

A ham radio (the cable is used to allow programming of its memory channels). I did not think the cable would do that too, and I dont have any specs on it. Without the radio connected, Windows does see the cable, just doesnt know what to do with it.

Quiz: Is this ham radio certified by the manufacturer to be USB20 device? Does it bore the USB20 logo? If not or you're not sure, forget it. i_XpUser

What is this "USB serial cable". Is it a USB to serial port adapter cable that has circuits included to convert one to the other? Did it come with a CD, or at least installation directions? Did you read the installation directions for it? Windows doesn't have built in drivers for everything - obviously the drivers are not automatically found, and you must provide some, or point Windows to some driver it already has according to some instructions. Some devices must have the drivers for it installed before you plug in device - for others you must plug in the device then point it to the drivers on a CD or a floppy or to an *.inf file in a drivers download you have obtained and placed somwhere on your hard drive (you may have to unzip or run the download file to make the *.inf file available). USB 2.0 is supposed to be backward compatable with USB 1.x devices and usually a USB 1.x device will work fine - it just cannot move data faster than the max USB 1.x speeds - so that probably hasn't got anything to do with your problem.

The only concern is the cable, the radio has nothing to do with the USB issue. The manufacturer provides software that is used to handle the programming of the radio's memory channels. There is also a serial cable besides the USB one which apparently has circuitry boilt in or Windows would not see the cable alone. No cd, no instructions. Can I add this cable manually? If so, exactly what category would the cable fall into? Am trying toi find this out from the manufacturer but am hoping I can find answers here much faster. Thanks.

"There is also a serial cable besides the USB one which apparently has circuitry boilt in or Windows would not see the cable alone." Clear as mud. I assume it has a USB connector on one end and a 9 or 25 pin Dsub connector on the other. If that's what it has, if it came with the ham radio since drivers aren't found automatically, there should be instructions somewhere - that came with it, or on the radio maker's web site. If it didn't come with the radio, you're going to have to find out who made it and where to get the drivers for it, or find instructions for how to set it up in Windows if Windows just needs to be told what drivers it already has to use. "Can I add this cable manually? If so, exactly what category would the cable fall into?" I have no idea. The only other thing I can think of is a shot in the dark - the USB to serial adapter may require that an IRQ be free that it can use - presumably default would be IRQ 4 or 3 - take a look in System Information to see if something else is using those.