USB to Serial: Example 1 - Example 2
Cisco Console Cables: Console Cables
The two units I see consistently good performance with are:
The Keyspan uses a somewhat unique Texas Instruments chipset while the Trendnet uses a Prolific chipset.
I hear lots of people complain about Prolific chips and fawn over FTDI chips, but I've never had a noteworthy issue with a Prolific chip device.
I've never used this one, but if you want an FTDI adapter this one should be good:
Looks like you have a driver or hardware issue probably. If you installed the driver, try rebooting or maybe a different USB port.
Could also try Windows Update for a better driver...some of the reviews for that cable mention using the MS driver.
That said, I've always had good luck with these