Driver error with ESP32 boards after updating to ESP-IDF 4.1

[Nikostpn]

Hi all,


Overview:

I've recently ran ESP-IDF Tools 2.12 Online to update the tools and the toolchain and now I'm having issues with drivers and connecting to ESP32 boards, including ESP32 HUZZAH32 from Adafruit and ESP32-S2-DevKitM-1.

Problems:

Now, whenever I'm trying to flash any of the boards that I have, I get the following error:

Serial port COM36
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "C:\Users\username\Desktop\esp-idf\components/esptool_py/esptool/esptool.py", line 3422, in <module>
_main()
File "C:\Users\username\Desktop\esp-idf\components/esptool_py/esptool/esptool.py", line 3415, in _main
main()
File "C:\Users\username\Desktop\esp-idf\components/esptool_py/esptool/esptool.py", line 3079, in main
esp = chip_class(each_port, initial_baud, args.trace)
File "C:\Users\username\Desktop\esp-idf\components/esptool_py/esptool/esptool.py", line 261, in __init__
self._port = serial.serial_for_url(port)
File "C:\Users\username\.espressif\python_env\idf4.1_py3.8_env\lib\site-packages\serial\__init__.py", line 90, in serial_for_url
instance.open()
File "C:\Users\username\.espressif\python_env\idf4.1_py3.8_env\lib\site-packages\serial\serialwin32.py", line 64, in open
raise SerialException("could not open port {!r}: {!r}".format(self.portstr, ctypes.WinError()))
serial.serialutil.SerialException: could not open port 'COM36': FileNotFoundError(2, 'The system cannot find the file specified.', None, 2)
esptool.py failed with exit code 1

Checking the devices in the device manager, I see the following for the Silicon Labs CP210x USB to UART Bridge:

Windows cannot load the device driver for this hardware. The driver may be corrupted or missing. (Code 39)

{Driver Entry Point Not Found}
The %hs device driver could not locate the entry point %hs in driver %hs.

Attempted Solution:

What I've tried so far is to reinstall the drivers (install again; delete the driver, disconnect the board, install drivers, connect the board; so on) but that didn't fix the issue.

Why might this be happening and what are some other things I can try?

[Nikostpn]

Update:

I was able to solve the issue by removing the driver from the registry and then reinstalling it again.