Failed attempts to get the Sony Ericsson DCU-11 USB cable working with Windows 7
I have started to get some reliability issues lately with BlueSoleil (used with my SMS to Email Forwarder application), therefore I decided to take another look at using a cabled solution. Was initially planning on using a cable rather than Bluetooth however the cable does not support charging, and does not have Windows 7 drivers available.
After opening up the cable I noticed it used a “PL-2303HX” USB to serial chip. Searching Google appears it is made by Prolific. Unfortunately however the standard Prolific drivers do not work because the cable has a custom USB PID “1234″ instead of the standard Prolific PID of “2303″. 
Two possible solutions came to mind, either changing the chip back to the default PID such that Windows would recognise it as a standard Prolific serial adapter, or modifying the Windows driver to recognise the non standard Prolific PID.
I first tried reprogramming the chip. Appears it has been successful for someone using a T230 cable (EEPROM Writer link on that post is nolonger working however there is a copy at Megaupload via Jonathan Thomson’s Web Journal). I was however unable to get it to recognise the cable and looking on EDA Board appears a special “EEPROM programming cable” may be required.
I next tried modifying the Prolific driver, and was then able to install it however started getting a Windows error “This device cannot start” (and after rebooting I was unable to login – unplugging the USB adapter and rebooting again fixed the issue).
Next option I may try is either rewiring the adapter with another USB to serial chip that does have Windows 7 drivers or putting the SIM in a GSM modem / another phone that can be easily connected to a PC.
