Tinyboy Fabrikator no longer connects to PC

I got my tinyboy fabrikator last year. It worked great on two different laptops running windows 8 and windows 10. The printer never worked with my desktop computer.

I used the printer to learn about 3d printing and had some fun with it then put it away for about a month or two. This week I took it back out to make some prints, but it no longer works. I tried it on the two laptops and even on the desktop and Repetier-Host turns green for connect but says "no start signal detected - forcing start"

I have been googling for 2 days. Can someone help me troubleshoot this?

Here is the current situation and what I have done so far:
The controller board powers on when I plugin the 12v adapter. When I connect USB I see the control lights blink and the device manager shows a connection to COM3 using FTDI 2.12.12 drivers.

I checked to see if the chip was bricked using FT_PROG. It is not. I tried un-installing the ftdi drivers and usb serial converter. They just reinstall as fast as I can't figure out how to permanently remove them. I even tried to use a program CMD_Removal tool from the FTDI site.

I reloaded the latest arduino software but I cannot figure out how to use those drivers when the fabrikator is connected.

I also tried to connect with a linux box, but it was fedora and... ugh! I am going to retry with ubuntu just because that might work better...

Thanks for your help in advanced!

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/29/2016 02:24PM by llsouder.

I am also following this topic [forums.reprap.org] because it could be the same problem. I going to recheck my ftdi chip now to see if it is " bricked" maybe I did it wrong the first time.

My printer has a MKS Base V1.3.
Using microsoft usbviewer I got the output shown at the bottom of this post. Does not look bricked to me.

Device Descriptor:
bcdUSB:             0x0200
bDeviceClass:         0x00
bDeviceSubClass:      0x00
bDeviceProtocol:      0x00
bMaxPacketSize0:      0x08 (8)
idVendor:           0x0403 (Future Technology Devices International Limited)
idProduct:          0x6001
bcdDevice:          0x0600
iManufacturer:        0x01
0x0409: "FTDI"
iProduct:             0x02
0x0409: "FT232R USB UART"
0x0409: "FT232R USB UART"
iSerialNumber:        0x03
0x0409: "A9SFNTHH"
bNumConfigurations:   0x01

ConnectionStatus: DeviceConnected
Current Config Value: 0x01
Device Bus Speed:     Full
Device Address:       0x01
Open Pipes:              2

Endpoint Descriptor:
bEndpointAddress:     0x81  IN
Transfer Type:        Bulk
wMaxPacketSize:     0x0040 (64)
bInterval:            0x00

Endpoint Descriptor:
bEndpointAddress:     0x02  OUT
Transfer Type:        Bulk
wMaxPacketSize:     0x0040 (64)
bInterval:            0x00

Configuration Descriptor:
wTotalLength:       0x0020
bNumInterfaces:       0x01
bConfigurationValue:  0x01
iConfiguration:       0x00
bmAttributes:         0xA0 (Bus Powered Remote Wakeup)
MaxPower:             0x2D (90 Ma)

Interface Descriptor:
bInterfaceNumber:     0x00
bAlternateSetting:    0x00
bNumEndpoints:        0x02
bInterfaceClass:      0xFF
bInterfaceSubClass:   0xFF
bInterfaceProtocol:   0xFF
iInterface:           0x02
0x0409: "FT232R USB UART"
0x0409: "FT232R USB UART"

Endpoint Descriptor:
bEndpointAddress:     0x81  IN
Transfer Type:        Bulk
wMaxPacketSize:     0x0040 (64)
bInterval:            0x00

Endpoint Descriptor:
bEndpointAddress:     0x02  OUT
Transfer Type:        Bulk
wMaxPacketSize:     0x0040 (64)
bInterval:            0x00

The Arduino IDE's serial monitor reports: "NON GENUINE DEVICE FOUND" printed over and over again!

more information "NON GENUINE..." : [forums.reprap.org]

not really too helpful because it appears my chip is not bricked.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/30/2016 02:47PM by llsouder.

I found how to change drivers on window 10 but things are still not working. I did get windows to roll back to 2.8 from 2.12. Windows would usually say some like "you already have the latest drivers installed" but it turns out that message is a lie! What it really wants to say is "you are trying to install an unsigned or unsafe driver!"

So here is how you get windows to install an older version: [e2e.ti.com]

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/30/2016 03:03PM by llsouder.

OKAY!!! I confirmed my printer is not broken!!!

I loaded Ubuntu 14 LTS onto a laptop. Downloaded Repetier-Host .95F and ran the .configureFirst.sh then rebooted. Ran RH, configured the printer settings, and when I connected I got all kinds of output and the printer was able to "home"

Windows is not working but I see a raspberry pi with repetier-server might be an alternative to throwing away the printer!

Got a response from Dust here: [forums.reprap.org]

Quote
Dust
The latest windows driver no longer bricks clone FTDI chips, but does detect its a clone and will not fuction..

People are reporting "The Arduino IDE's serial monitor reports: "NON GENUINE DEVICE FOUND" printed over and over again! "

You need to roll the driver back to a pre nasty version..
or run linux
or plug your controller into a raspberry pi running octoprint (so windows can't see the FTDI chip)
or get a non clone FTDI chip (though after all FTDI's nastiness I advise using a ch340 or alternative usb to serial converter.)

Hey,
please follow my advice from http://www.eevblog.com/forum/microcontrollers/ftdi-gate-2-0/msg854401/#msg854401
You have to manually select the older driver for the "USB Serial Port (COMx)" as well as for the "USB Serial Converter". It then should work fine again.