First off, I’m against piracy in software and hardware. I understand FTDI trying to protect themselves from piracy and fake replicas. Having said that, clearly, end users have bought electronic products legally and most of them are out of warranty because they had bought them years ago. End users can blame and complain to their sellers, but it is unlikely they are able to get some kind of refund or replacement if that product is out of warranty. If anybody connects an old board using a fake FT232 to an updated Windows operating system, that device dies. I understand FTDI, but the end user would like to come back to previous stage.
Everything is written on a Linux terminal :
How to know if FT232 is affected :
$ lsusb
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 0403:0000 Future Technology Devices International, Ltd H4SMK 7 Port Hub
How to recover FT232 :
$ sudo apt-get install make gcc libftdi-dev
$ wget http://rtr.ca/ft232r/ft232r_prog-1.24.tar.gz
$ tar -zxvf ft232r_prog-1.24.tar.gz
$ cd ft232r_prog-1.24
$ make
$ sudo ./ft232r_prog –old-pid 0x000 –new-pid 0x6001
Unplug USB and plug it again. Check it :
$ lsusb
Bus 003 Device 007: ID 0403:6001 Future Technology Devices International, Ltd FT232 USB-Serial (UART) IC
And last but not least : Reader, I demand you to be fair and reject any piracy product, hardware or software.
More info :
http://hackaday.com/2014/10/22/watch-that-windows-update-ftdi-drivers-are-killing-fake-chips/
http://www.reddit.com/r/arduino/comments/2k0i7x/watch_that_windows_update_ftdi_drivers_are/clgviyl
https://code.google.com/p/libcomm14cux/wiki/ModifyFTDIFirmwareWithLinux