USB Console Cable Windows 11 connection to IR1101 router

[boclay]

My new Lenovo P1 laptop with Windows 11 was not able to communicate via the blue Cisco USB console cable to my IR1101 router serial port. My previous Lenovo X1 laptop running Windows 10 worked fine with the same cable and the same router.

Solution: I installed the latest Silicon Labs CP210x Universal Windows driver v 11.2 to my Windows 11 laptop.

Setup:

     Cisco IR1101 (IOS XE 17.3.1) ---- blue console cable ---- Windows 11 laptop USB port

What did NOT work:

• Searching on Google to try and find a fix for the problem
• Installing, re-installing, repairing, etc. the Cisco 3.1 console driver on my laptop
• Prompting Windows to locate a driver

What DID work:

Installing the Silicon Labs CP210x Universal Windows driver v 11.2 dated 10/21/2022 to my Windows 11 laptop. This file is located at… https://www.silabs.com/developers/usb-to-uart-bridge-vcp-drivers?tab=downloads

Troubleshooting:

• I looked for for non-working Drivers in Device Manager / Other Devices
• I saw a Silicon Labs CP210x USB to UART Bridge with an error symbol next to it.
• I downloaded the latest Silicon Labs CP210x driver zip file, installed the driver, and the serial port showed up in “Device Manager / Ports” and the problem was fixed

Detailed Instructions:

1. Go to the Silicon Labs website (link above) and downloaded the CP210x_Universal_Windows_Driver.zip file
2. Extract the zip file to a folder
3. Make sure the blue USB cable is unplugged from the laptop
4. Right click on silabser.inf file, select ‘show more options’ and choose install
5. Reboot the laptop
6. Connect the USB cable to the laptop and to the router
7. You should see “Silcon Labs CP210x USB to UART Bridge (COMx)” show up in Device Manager / Ports along with a COM serial port number
8. Open your favorite terminal program, Putty for example, and connect to your router.

[Leo Laohoo]

The IR1101 has a mini-USB console port (#8 in the PICTURE). 

[gmukesh]

You saved me Bob!!!

[heinrichdelange]

This saved me some troubleshooting as well.  If someone from Cisco reads this, it's perhaps time to update your driver or remove the unsupported one.

[bim87]

In my case I had the Cisco USB console driver 3.1 installed prior to upgrading to Win11, where it worked on Win10 until then. I followed all these steps and then some, and still wasn't able to get it work.

I happened to uninstall the driver, reboot, and thought to connect my cable and seen it establish a Port device in the Device Manager.

So in short, had to get rid of the Cisco driver for their product to work with whatever MS driver. That logic does not compute.