Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Install a 32-bit driver on 64-bit Windows

Yesterday a found out that my super cheap Chinese PCMCIA-SERIAL adapter didn't come with a driver for x64 based systems. The adapter uses a CH352 chip and the manufacturer of the chip (www.wch.cn) doesn't even have any drivers on the website, let alone provide 64-bit versions.

Surprisingly, Microsoft had the answer this time.

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/driver/install/64INF_reqs.mspx#E1G

You can install a driver not marked as 64-bit compatible if you create the following DWORD key in the registry and set the value to 1 (or anything but zero)

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup\DisableDecoratedModelsRequirement

I didn't even have to restart the computer and it worked like a charm.

Of course, you do this and any other modification of the registry at your own risk. It is only recommended for testing purposes.
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8 comments:

  1. AnonymousOctober 29, 2009 at 5:22 AM

    Hi,

    I am running Vista 64-bit. I have bought a "2 serial, 1 parallel" PCI-card based on the CH353 chip. However, I cannot install the driver. (The driver that I use is "http://www.fecchio.com.br/downloads/WCH35x.zip")

    I have tried your method. However, Vista still refuse to install the driver.

    Any help?

    Please kindly contact me via email takwing1hk@yahoo.com.hk.

    Thx!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jaroslav KlímaOctober 29, 2009 at 7:35 AM

    Hi,
    1) what error message do you get?
    2) it seems that there is another driver at the bottom of this page http://www.wch.cn/product/pci/ch353.asp
    jk

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousOctober 29, 2009 at 5:27 PM

    JK,

    Thanks!! I have obtained the driver from the page that you have mentioned.
    (To let you know, I am Chinese and so reading that page is not a problem for me).

    It seems that the driver is more updated than the one I used. I will try it tomorrow (as the card is being used in the PC in my office).

    Will let you know the results later.

    Wing

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousOctober 30, 2009 at 4:37 AM

    I can installed the driver successfully!

    The only problem that I have now is that Microsoft Virutal PC cannot identify the parallel port. On my WinXP machine VPC settings, I can see that there is an option "LPT1 (xxxx-xxxx)" in the "Physical Parallel Port" dropdown. However, there is no option available in the VPC settings under Vista's VPC.

    Any help from you?

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousOctober 30, 2009 at 4:39 AM

    sound like my problem is a limitation of VPC 2007.

    http://blogs.msdn.com/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2007/09/20/why-is-there-no-lpt-port-listed-under-virtual-pc.aspx

    any workaround solution?

    ReplyDelete
  6. AnonymousNovember 8, 2009 at 4:46 AM

    Thanks so much for your posts ... took care of my problem!

    Sorry I can't help with the virtual PC problem. Not using it.

    ReplyDelete
  7. AnonymousDecember 19, 2009 at 11:39 PM

    Hi there!
    Need help!) The problem is that i can't install CH353 drivers on Win 7. It shows error like this one http://img85.imageshack.us/img85/9083/ch353.jpg

    my email etosemki@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  8. Jaroslav KlímaDecember 19, 2009 at 11:48 PM

    I have never seen that message, sorry...

    ReplyDelete