SparkFun SAMD21 Pro RF not connecting to Windows 11

Development Boards
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Using Arduino IDE 1.8.19 on my Windows 11 (up to date version) running on my HP Envy (intel i7) , I have not been able to properly connect the SparkFun SAMD21 Pro RF in order to upload a sketch. The PORT is ghosted on the Tools submenu. While I suspect it is a driver problem, I have not found any drivers to work.

  • Window 11 did not auto detect the device.

  • Reviewed Device Manager, no related device item listed under USB items, Other Devices, no Ports (Com & LPT)

  • attempted to add legacy hardware Port (COM & LPT)

  • tried the sparkfun.inf / sparkfun.cat download, selecting the SparkFun SAMD21 Pro device, received error : "error

occurred during installation, hash on this file is not present in the specified catalog file, file likely corrupted."

  • Have searched forum high and low for suitable drivers and nothing works. I followed the hookup guides (found some of that to be well out of date), gleaned suggestions from other posts and tried them, again to no avail.

  • I ordered a new SparkFun SAMD21 PRO RF and new USB cable and repeated steps above, with the same results.

For background, 2020 I had my earlier SparkFun SAMD21 PRO RF board working with the same sketch, and it was successfully communicating with my LoRaWAN gateway, uploading atmospheric data to TheTHingsNetwork . I shelved the project and since then I have a new laptop, and cannot revive the SAMD21 node :frowning: to no avail.

Where can I find the correct drivers for my environment?

What is the properly way for me to install them?

Should I consider a different / newer SparkFun LoRa capable device such as the ExPlorable? Am I less apt to have a problem with the newer devices?

As an aside, I configured an Arduino IDE on my Raspberry Pi 4, and the device was recognized on the port, however some of the necessary libraries (such as something gccxxxx did not have a version for ARM 64 environment) so I was dead in the water on the RPi environment for this project.

In advance I want to thank anyone that can help me, and SparkFun for all their great products, sensors, boards, and tutorials.

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I suspect you’ve already seen this https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/sp … -need-them but maybe also look at https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/sa … leshooting which has a few extra caveats/notes…if you have an old PC/laptop laying around you might have some luck with those

You also might be able to get something going by booting a linux USB stick as a 2nd OS and trying that way

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TS-Russell, thank you, and my apologies for not replying sooner. I returned to using an older Windows 10 PC with an earlier Arduino IDE, and that works. I failed to check for a response to my post until today when I was posting another issue now with the SparkFun The Thing Plus ExpLoRAble Lorwa device. So, again, a belated thanks for your pointers.