Hi Guys!

It's been a while since I've last posted anything here for help with. That's mainly due to the fact that I've always managed to find my answers here BEFORE posting my questions (thanks to all of the awesome and helpful "regulars") :)

Anyhoo, this new problem has stumped me? I'll try to be as brief and accurate as possible.
I recently purchased a DCU-11 USB data cable that I am using to connect to my Sony-Ericsson mobile phone. When I plug it in, the cable is properly recognized when I check the Device Manager. In "Ports [COM & LPT]", I see "USB Cable DCU-11 [COM4]" with a yellow exclamation mark. I load the appropriate Sony-Ericsson drivers, and the yellow exclamation mark goes away. All seems fine and dandy.

However, *every time* that I restart my computer, the yellow exclamation mark for the USB DCU-11 cable is back! I click "Update Driver" and locate the driver for it, and all is well... until the next time that I restart my computer again.

Would anyone know why this is constantly happening? It seems like each time I shut down/start up/restart my computer, the DCU-11 USB driver always mysteriously disappears, and I'm forced to constantly re-load it each time. All my other USB devices/drivers work perfectly fine (digital camera, printer, etc.).
The driver was downloaded to my "Program Files" folder by default (same place where my digital camera driver folder is located, too). Should it be located somewhere else instead?

I'm totally stumped by this problem? Any insight on a remedy would be greatly appreciated. Thanks guys, I appreciate your help! :)

-- Sarah

What software are you using with the phone? Any?

Hi OtheHill...

The drivers are original/current
Sony-Ericsson, while the accompaning mobile
synch software is Sony-Ericsson's PC Suite.
I've also used Float's "Mobile Agent", which
is actually a lot more versatile than Sony's
stuff for mobile phone/PC synching.

And, just for the record (since I didn't
mention it earlier), the synch software used
doesn't seem to be related to the problem of
my USB DCU-11 cable driver always
disappearing. The problem existed even before
I loaded any mobile software onto my PC.
Sooooo frustrating this dilema is! :

The reason I asked is because when I connect My phone to my computer it doesn't require any USB drivers. It is seem as a modem. Are you connecting the cable to the phone and then connecting the cable to the USB port?

Hi again!

The installation of the USB cable doesn't require that the cellphone be connected. When plugged in, the computer automatically detects the new hardware (DCU-11 USB Data Cable), then proceeds to locate the appropriate drivers for it as with any newly detected hardware (Sony-Ericsson CD in cd drive / or downloaded driver from S-E website).

My cable is recognized and assigned to port COM4. The USB cable is used to synch my PC with my Sony-Ericsson Z500a cellphone, and vice versa (to exchange Outlook Express info, transfer ringtones, games, cameraphone pictures, etc.)

At this point, I am unsure what the exact culprit is... the driver, the USB cable or my PC? As earlier stated, everything seems to go smoothly (USB cable recognized by PC, drivers located/installed, yellow exclamation mark disappears once appropriate driver is loaded, etc.)... but *everytime* that I restart my computer, the driver for the synch cable mysteriously vanishes... and then I have to start the whole process over again.

-- Sarah

I think there are two distinct types of cables. I have the type that does nothing without a phone attached. Yours has a large component in the wire doesn't it? I have no incite as to why the drivers won't hold. I bought the type of cable I did because I read that was the type I needed to do what I wanted to do.

Hiya!

Yes, there's something along the cable, as opposed to it just being a straight wire. Unfortunately, the DCU-11 is the only USB cable available from Sony-Ericsson that is compatible with my type of cellphone. There's an aftermarket cable available, but people have reported even worst results using that one (driver and cable ID's do not match up, so it doesn't even work together. You have to manually modify entries within the registry to make them recognize each other).

It's just really weird because the cable and driver software seems to work decently for some, but not for others. It's a problem that I've never encountered before. And seeing the lack of input from others here, I suspect that it's really not a common occurence? Ah well, I'll tinker around with it a bit more and see if any good comes of it. Thank you for any insight. I appreciate it! :)

-- Sarah

Sarah

Do you have an icon for the cable in the tray next to the clock, after you install the driver? I am wondering if this device is treated like a removable drive, where you need to disconnect it to be able to safely remove it. You are correct in that once a USB driver is installed for a device it whould recognise that device the next time.

Nope, no icon next to the clock. I've been searching the web for various drivers that might be compatible with this cable. If there's a defect in the original driver software, I'm sure Sony-Ericsson would have received a flood of complaints by now and released updates. So far, nothing.

I'll try it on a different PC later and see if that might help. Maybe it could be something in my software/hardware that might be causing all the conflicts.

-- Sarah

DCU-11: Problem solved (for me at least).

After seeing that I was not alone in having DCU-11 not finding the phone it prodded me into a deeper investigation.

The fact that connecting a powersupply to DCU-11 was recognised by the phone (and that connecting an earpiece and power supply directly to the phone both worked) led to me to believe that there was nothing wrong with either phone or cable - therefore the problem was with windows.

Once I accepted this as fact the problem was not that difficult to solve.

Although the USB data cable (recognised by Windows) is a USB device the phone itself is *NOT* USB, but a 'serial' device.

Others have commented on the fact that it is unusual for windows to recognise the cable without a phone being connected. This is because the cable itself must be a 'device' that converts USB traffic to the 'serial' traffic neede by the phone.

Then I checked in 'device manager' [Control Panel> System> Hardware> Device Manager> Ports (COM & LPT)> USB Cable DCU-11]. This showed me that the cable had assigned itself as COM5. This is an unusual port for an external serial device so I changed it to COM2 (via Port Settings> Advanced).

For me this worked and my phone is now immediately recognised. Hope it does so for all those people having problems.

Cheers,
--
Neale Hind
Insanity is hereditary, you get it from your children