FTDI USB-Serial Converters – Re-installing Drivers

This document describes how to remove the drivers for all FTDI USB-Serial converters from your PC,
allowing you to install the latest driver for all converters.

This has the following advantages:

This procedure will un-install the driver for all devices on your system with the Vendor ID of 0403. This
includes most FTDI USB-serial converters. Other products connected to your system which use the FTDI
chipset with the standard FTDI / EasySYNC Vendor and Product IDs may also be un-installed.

This procedure is provided for information only. FTDI / EasySYNC accept no responsibility whatsoever for
any problems or consequences resulting from its use. Users requiring further information should consult
the CDM Uninstaller user guide and the installation guides provided for each OS on the FTDI website.

Step 1 - Removing the Drivers

Disconnect the USB cable of your FTDI converter(s) from the PC before running the uninstaller.

Create a folder on your desktop called CDMuninstaller. Then download the driver uninstaller from the
link below and save it into the folder you created.
https://ftdichip.com/utilities/#cdm-uninstaller

Unzip the CDMUninstaller program.

Right-click on the file CDMuninstallerGUI.exe and select ‘Run as Administrator’ to ensure that the
program is run with administrator privileges. You should see the window shown in Figure 1 below.

Figure 1
Leave the Vendor ID as 0403 and delete the entry 6001 in the Product ID box to leave it blank as shown
in Figure 2.

Figure 2

Then click the ‘Add’ button and the window will look like Figure 3 below.

Figure 3

Finally, click ‘Remove Devices’ at the bottom of the Window and the drivers for all FTDI converters will
be removed. You will get one or more message boxes popping up (see Figure 4) to confirm this.

Figure 4
Once the drivers have all been uninstalled (the large text box will be blank again like Figure 1 above and
the status message will be back to ‘ready’) you can close the program.

You can now proceed to Step 2.

Step 2 - Re-boot the PC

It is best to re-boot the PC at this stage before installing new drivers. You should not connect your USB-
Serial converter to the PC yet.

You can now proceed to Step 3 to install the driver.

Step 3 - Installing the latest drivers

Do not connect your USB-serial converter to the PC USB port yet.

Download the file from the link below to a convenient location on your PC.
http://www.ftdichip.com/Drivers/CDM/CDM21228_Setup.zip

Un-zip the file to extract the executable installer CDM21228_Setup.exe (for example, this can be done
by right-clicking the downloaded CDM21228_Setup.zip file and selecting “Extract All…” )

Right-click on the CDM21228_Setup.exe file and select ‘Run as Administrator’ to ensure that the
program is run with administrator privileges.

Windows may display the warning below. This is just to notify you that you are running a file which was
downloaded from the internet. If this appears, click ‘Yes’.

Figure 5
The driver install wizard will appear a shown below. Click ‘Extract’ to proceed.

Figure 6

Windows will now extract the files provided in the setup program.

Figure 7
Click ‘Next’ to begin installing the driver.

Figure 8

You must review the license terms shown before installing the driver, and then select the appropriate
radio button. By proceeding with the installation, you confirm your acceptance of these terms.

Figure 9
The wizard will then show the drivers being installed.

Figure 10

Finally, the following screen will show that the drivers were installed correctly. Both items have green
ticks next to them and have status ‘Ready to use’.

Figure 11

The driver files are now on your system, and installation of any FTDI products will complete
automatically using this latest driver when they are connected.

You can now connect your USB device and wait for Windows to install it as a USB Serial converter and
associated USB Serial Port.

You can now proceed to Step 4 to verify the installation.

Once Windows indicates that the device is installed, you should see the USB Serial Converter in Device
manager. An example is shown in Figure 12. Note that for some products, the description may have
been customized and so the text descriptions may not match the ones circled below exactly.

The device will show under the Universal Serial Bus Controllers section. In most cases, it will also show
under Ports (COM & LPT). This depends on whether the Virtual Com Port (VCP) mode is enabled.

Figure 12

Some application software requires you to enter the COM port number assigned to your serial adapter.
This can be found under the Ports (COM & LPT section). In the example in Figure 12, the adapter was
assigned COM16.