need help with BASYS3 board not talking to Win7 computer

[Michael Majors]

Digilent Support,

I purchases a BASYS3 board to use with Vivado training and have not been able to get it to communicate with my Windows 7 laptop.  I have been trying to get help from Xilinx on their support forum with this thread:

https://forums.xilinx.com/t5/Configuration/Win7-cable-drivers-to-talk-to-reference-board/td-p/901297

but they are not answering anymore.  The few messages in there show what they have had me try and nothing has worked.

The basic problem is that when I plug in the BASYS3 board a device comes up in Device Manager - Other Devices called Digilent USB Device but properties for it show no device driver installed.  No device shows up in the Vivado Hardware Manager to talk to. 

When I bring up the Xilinx Information Center, go to Manage Installs, Add Tools/Devices, it never shows a check mark in the Cable Drivers.  If I click that check box and add cable drivers, it shows 0.0 bytes download size.  If I hit next and install anyway, it appears to be installing something.  Then after its finished if I go back to it, Cable Drivers are still not checked.

The board appears to power up and run its default internal self test program ok.  I've tried different USB laptop ports and different known working USB cables. 

It appears the drivers for the board are not installed on my laptop and I can't get them installed.  Can anybody help ?

[jpeyron]

Hi @Michael Majors,

I am running a Win 7 OS for my PC. The sections in the Device Manager you should be looking at are Ports(COM & LPT) and Universal Serial Bus Controllers. I have attached screen shots of what a Basys 3 connected to a WIN 7 PC should look like I.E Ports, Universal serial bus controller and what FTDI driver i have installed. What version of FTDI Driver is installed? Could you attache screen shots of you device manager ports and universal serial bus controller. Does Adept 2 recognize the Basys 3? Have you tried different PC?

thank you,

Jon

[Michael Majors]

Jon,

Thank you for trying to help.  I don't have a Ports section in my Windows Device Manager so there is no way to show the FTDI driver installed, which apparently means I don't have it installed.  What's the best way to get that ?  I've attached a screen shot.

I have often used USB to Serial converter devices with this laptop and they show up as a COM port in windows device manager using a FTDI driver.  I currently don't have another suitable computer to try this with.

Adept shows no devices connected, and when I click its device manager button, the device table manager is empty.

Mike

[jpeyron]

Hi @Michael Majors,

You can get the most current FTDI driver here.

thank you,

Jon

[Michael Majors]

Thank you so much !  I'm back working with Xilinx directly to get some help too.  I'll report back here how it all turns out so maybe others will benefit.