I am able to using a Trendnet TU-S9 USB to Serial.

http://www.trendnet.com/products/proddetail.asp?prod=150_TU-S9&cat=49

rfm_update_usb.jpg rfm_update_usb2.jpg 20120913_201131.jpg

The Laptop here does have a serial port on the docking station, but not the laptop itself. The com port on the docking station is set to com 2. When I installed the USB to serial, it showed up as com 7. I moved the docking station com port from com 1 to com 2 and the USB adapter to com 1 in device manager. This laptop is a Compaq x1030US running Windows 7 x32. It's allmost 6 years old.

I am going to tinker a bit, and see if I am able to get it to work with my i7 Windows 7 x64 laptop.... This does not have a docking station...

-Mike

I invite you to post what your doing, and what hardware you are using. Just because you have been able to do it, does not mean it will work with every USB adapter. Please post how you installed the Pin2k update software on the x64 system, etc...

You have 2 choices Com1 or Com2 in the pin2k software. The software has a 16bit installer. I had to do a work-around to get it to install. I was not able to update the game with two different x64 laptops and this seral adapter. I WAS able to do it with the Compaq, and a Toshiba Satellite M15-S405 running XP.

I was able to run the software under x64, but the communication would die after a minute or two. Depending on the driver version for the USB adaptor, I was not able to connect at all. So I am not saying it's not impossible, but I do not think it's possible with this adapter on a x64 system. I tried every driver they had, two worked to connect but failed to update the system. Maybe a newer adapter will work fine.

-Mike

RFM 1.6 was the last release.

@markmon:
That's a bummer, if you remember the hardware, please let me know. I tried every possible combo I could think of to get it to work.

Did you use the Virtual XP feature? The 16 bit pin2k update software installer would not install on the x64 systems at all, even with comparability mode and admin rights. I was able to get it to install by copying the install files after they were extracted into the temp dir while the error was on the screen (that gives you the path). If you copy the install files (Disk1, Disk2, Disk3) into a folder and replace the 16 bit installer with a 32 bit one, it will install. On one of the x64 laptops it complained it could not find mscomctrl.ocx and I had to copy the file from the other laptop. The pin2k software would run fine, but was unable to get it to update using the same com settings or lower speed. The Windows 7 driver for the USB adapter I have would get a stack com error when it went to do the update. Three other drivers would install, out of the four two errored immediately with the stack error, the other two would start like it was going to work, then would fail and error out after about a minute or two.

On the 32bit Toshiba XP computer, I was able to update with the setting of 115200 speed. It was about 90% done and hung up. I had to power off the pin, and when it re-booted the software continued and finished the update. I re-applied the update at 57600 and it went through without a problem. The update took about 17 minutes or so. With the Compaq I only tried at com speed 38400. It did not seem to matter if hardware flow control was on or off. Default settings in the serial hardware setup were left alone other than changing the com port from it's default of com 7 to com 1 and setting the speed to 115200.

I need to find my other USB to serial adapter, and try some more. I will do a write up in the Pin Wiki when I am done with it all. BUT it IS possible and I have been able to do it with a USB and Windows XP and Windows 7 (32bit).

Hope this was helpful,

Thank you,

Mike

No, I have the v1.6 update that will work with the serial method. You can see it in the pic above, as I was updating/testing with the RFM rom v1.6.

Oddly enough when trying to update using the x64 laptops, and the updates failed, the system rebooted, and the version was V0.10. The game would not play/start, and if you enabled the coils/flashers by shutting the door, a coil would fire every few seconds...

-Mike