Hi All,
Just heard on the engineering grapevine that FTDI the chip manufacturer that converts USB to serial had deliberately set-up a system to Brick non genuine FTDI USB to Serial Integrated Circuits. FTDI is considered the standard high IC for serial conversion and is used extensively in a lot of Astro serial connections.
I am not sure if anyone has recently updated the driver for Windows but if they are using Fake FTDI chips the chip is automatically for the better term BRICK the chip from being used. It can be re-programmed but is a complex task.
Fortunately it had only had an effect for a short time, but enough to cause millions of boards to be rendered useless.
More information here -
http://www.zdnet.com/ftdi-admits-to-...te-7000035019/