Customer Reviews

StarTech.com 2-Port PCI RS232 Serial Adapter Card with 16550 UART (PCI2S550)

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I needed a serial card to connect a PC with a weather station. Why weather stations haven't updated to use USB rather than serial cards -- that is a different issue. Regardless, I bought three cards to do so. This was the only one that worked. It installs easily and works with Vista. I'm running Vista/64 and have had no issues with it.

Both of my new computer builds did not include serial ports so decided to try this card. Windows 7 64bit recognized and installed a driver automatically. Both serial ports became active and usable without rebooting. Highly recommended if you still need serial ports.

As Gary Young pointed out, the Windows 7/64 driver on the disk does not work. When I pressed the install button in the installation application, it printed out a message that it aborted. To get the working Windows 7/64 installer, download it off the website www[dot]startech[dot]com. Press the tab "Downloads" then enter the product code which is PCI2S550. Select that product and you will be presented with three files that you can download. Two PDFs have the same name which was an oversight on StarTech's part. Rename the Data Sheet as "PCI2S550_DS.pdf" and the Manual (the larger one) as "PCI2S550_Man.pdf". The ZIP file contains all versions of drivers/installers. I navigated down to the Win7 64 folder and ran the installer. My system, apparently, has a COM1 with no apparent connector. I discovered with some software I wrote that the two new ports installed as COM3 and COM4.

After a terrible experience with another serial card, it was a huge relief to have this one install and work perfectly on the first try. If you need more serial ports, this card will do the job for you.

Every year it get's harder and harder to find com ports. Especially now because they don't typically come stock on motherboards anymore. This card worked perfectly first time. I use it in a Win7 based system and run both com ports daily for my business. Was a great fix for the two USB -> Serial (Com) converters I purchased, that didn't work in Win7.

This card does exactly what it suppose to. Sweet!

It does work with Win 7 but I suggest that a person with medium to advance computer skills do the install. The driver files on the disk did not work and I ended up having to download the file from the website and after about an hour of sheer frustration and trying it a few different ways it finally worked. Product works good and having two serial ports is a big PLUS...

This is the best solution for adding serial support to newer PCs. You can purchase USB to serial adapters for less but these may or may not (in my experience usually not) work for your application due to clock discrepancies. You can also find PCI cards with USB and serial ports on them, these are just USB cards with a built-in serial to USB adapter with the same problems as the external devices. If you need full compliance with the standards, get these. I have five of this exact card in use and have had no problems whatsoever.

I installed this unit into a Dell PC running XP because I needed a serial port connecting to a door badge security system. It took just a few minutes to use the supplied driver disk to install once XP came up and prompted for new hardware, worked correctly after that.

Installation and setup went like a dream. The driver for Windows XP loaded automatically and I was quickly in business. Ordered this product because of issues with a USB to RS-232 interface that had very unstable operation. One day has gone by; operation of the new card extremely stable and fast. Very pleased with this product.

My experience with this product was less than satisfactory. I installed it on an XP machine according to the instructions. It led to error messages and the creation of an LPT3 port which was "unusable". It did create COM4 and COM5 which is what I would have expected.
However, my machine came to a grinding halt, would hand indefinitely on startup.
I did a system restored and reinstalled the PCI board. Same thing.
Perhaps I got a lemon so I will exchange it. Clearly the other reviewers here had a more positive experience.