My issue is identical to this! I took all the exact same steps as you, but I was stopped at the last step. On attempting to install the hotfix from Microsoft, I get the following error:
The update is not applicable on your computer.
I was near certain my computer was the correct type... Maybe I overlooked something?
I did install both of the USBTinyISP drivers, but it always gives the same errors... Again, my issue was exactly the same in every way
Were there any specific steps you took to install the hotfix?
Also I'm sorry if this thread is closed, but it's the only one that I found that was exactly the same as mine!
What kind of processor is in your computer. As explained in the KB entry, the hotfix applies to Intel Atom processors only.
Also, if your system has the latest service pack installed, the hotfix is already in it.
Had the same issue as the last user described (austind).
My system is Win7 x64, running on i7-4770 with 16 Gigs of RAM.
Microsoft's "hotfix" -wait-for-it- did nothing ("The update is not applicable on your computer.") except frustrating me about the way they send you a badly formatted URL on the email.
After a hour of juicy curses finally found a solution that worked for me.
It turns out that VMWare's "VMware Workstation Server" service is the problem.
By changing its start up mode from "Automatic" to "Manual", and stopping the service, the USB driver is loaded AND USBTinyISP is again working.
So i guess it's some lousy little checkbox somewhere in the VMWare's configuration.
Now, since that might not be the problem with you, try this, as that's the way i found my solution:
1. Restart in Safe Mode
2. Plug the USBTinyISP and install the driver. If everything is OK, your Windows should be able to recognize it (still, you cannot use it under safe mode)
3. Restart normally and open msconfig
4. Under General Tab, chose "Diagnostic startup" click Apply->Ok and restart your machine normally.
5. After loading Windows, connect USBTinyISP and it should be recognized without a problem.
6. If step 5 is working, run services.msc and write down all the services that are currently running (just to have them as reference for later)
7. In msconfig, change back the startup mode from "Diagnostic startup" to "Normal startup" and restart normally
8. Run services.msc again and start stopping the currently running services, by starting with the least important ones (google updaters, printer/scanner related, , etc. c*ap) and skip those you write down at step 6.
Eventually you will pinpoint the bastard screwing your USB devices.
P.S.
I've register on the forums to post (in bad English, but oh well) this solution only, so i hope it help someone.
Good work! Yes, I would suppose any other driver that "virtualizes" the hardware USB ports could affect the timings such that it could cause problems with a driver such as USBtiny and others including printers and scanners.
Same problem: trinket gives error "USB device not recognized." Tried installing drivers downloaded from Adafruit, no luck. Tried hotfix, says not for this version of windows. So, tried boot in safe mode. Same error there as well. In device manager, I had two devices with problems; one the usual USB one, and the other was sxuptp.exe. I uninstalled sxuptp to see if re-detection would fix anything. I now can't open device manager in normal mode, it just gives eternal swirl-circle. sxuptp is no longer visible in safe mode, and re-detect doesn't reinstate it. And, Trinket is still not recognized. Any thoughts?
Mine finally started working one day... I had all the drivers and everything before, but eventually it just started working. You guys with this issue should try using a different USB cable, too. Some don't have data lines, just +/- lines. Getting a nice USB data cable has fixed this issue for some people I've seen.
Im having almost the exact problem listed here, tried to manually install the drivers but the unknown device disappears from my list every time I uninstall the default drivers windows assigns to it. thinking it might be the device actually is malfunctioning...
SB555 wrote:Found the solution :)
I tried many things, but I'll try to list the steps which I think are important.
I first tried manually installing the drivers by doing win+r and entering "hdwwiz". Here I was able to install the drivers (both x86 and x64 versions, just in case) but the device still couldn't be recognized. I am not sure if it was necessary to do this step, I just did this while trying to fix it!
Then I installed the following hotfix: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2528984
After rebooting and uninstalling the unknown device again, the programmer was finally detected as "USBtiny"!
I also tested the programmer, avrdude could talk to it.
So glad it works now. Thanks for the help :)
We followed your above suggestion about re-installing the driver, but we have a Windows 8 machine, so we did not install the hotfix. The Arduino development software would still not recognize the device.
So, we plugged it in through a non-powered USB hub, and the upload works! My guess is that the hub is supplying the timing that the PC is not.