Hi Steve.

One thing I noted when I loaded it in my notebook that it 'appeared' not to recognize the controller but for some reason, it really did. I went to 'aircraft 1' for instance, and it allowed me to select an aircraft then I went to 'fly' and it worked. If the selections on the main screen are not 'bright' vs dim as though not allowed to use until the correct controller is plugged and recognized.. then perhaps it's something else. The above was just my experience with AFP and my Notebook. One more thing.. what windows version is he running on the notebook? Is the USB port recognized? Has he used it before for instance? Did he install the driver for the USB - Serial adapter? Just shotgunning here to try to help him out.

Dick.