The UART (Universal Asynchronous Receiver-Transmitter) interface is often used by various electronic devices such as modems, routers, smartphones, tablets, etc., to communicate with other devices in the absence of an operating system. If your device is locked and is not being detected by the PC, you can connect it to your PC through a simple USB to UART adapter and update the firmware to work once again.
There are mainly two different types of USB to UART adapters available on the market today: those that use Silicon Labs CP210X and those that use PL2303 prolific chips. According to the Prolific website, the online and offline market is full of fake adapters that use inexpensive, non-prolific chips that have a Prolific tag. These fake Prolific chips are somewhat compatible with Prolific controllers but may not work as expected or may stop working.
If you have purchased a USB to UART adapter from one of the online stores and want to know if you have purchased a product that uses a genuine Prolific chip, then you can use the PL2303 chip check tool from Prolific. Here is how:
1: First of all, download and install the device drivers for the Prolific PL2303 USB-to-UART adapter from HERE.
2: After installation, connect the USB-to-UART adapter to your PC. Wait for Windows to recognize the device (you will hear "sound" that Windows makes when connecting a USB device).
3: Open the Device Manager by pressing the Win + R key combination, typing devmgmt.msc and pressing Enter.
4: In the Device Manager, find Prolific USB-to-Serial Comm Port. It will be under the Ports section. Write down the COM port number you are using. In the following screenshot, you are using COM3.
5: Download the PL2303 Chip Checker tool from HERE.
6: Select the COM port as noted in step 4 above and click on the Verify button. If you are using a fake product, then it will display a message: No Chip PL2303. Otherwise, it will show the name and the variant of the chip.
This way you can find out if you have finished with a product that uses a fake PL2303 chip or not. If you use a product that has the PL2303 fake chip, it may give unexpected results and may even damage the device you are interacting with.
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