Getting GPS to connect, Using Windows XP Guest

[RevShaw56]

I bought this GPS, and it uses the Prolific PL2303 USB-to-Serial Bridge Chip Family Windows Driver. However, the particular chip is not compatible with my Windows 8 Machine. Having only a moderate amount of computer knowledge, and using google, I decided installing Windows XP on a virtual box to adopt the drivers would be an easy way of getting it to work.

I now have windows XP running on the virtual box, with the drivers installed. I think they are installed, because if I put in the driver disk again, I get the option to repair or uninstall them. Unfortunately, when I go to device manager, it doesn't show up under the Ports (Com and LPT) like it should. I have no idea what I need to get it to "activate" the drivers to make it recognize my gps?

I'm hoping there may be a quick fix or option, and I thought this would be the best place to ask.

Thanks in Advance,
Jack

I have the user manual in pdf form, but I'm not allowed to attach it. I can copy/paste parts of it if that would be helpful.

[BillG]

The basic problem is that you assumed that the OS in the virtual machine will use the physical hardware of the host machine. This is not the case.

A virtual machine has its own emulated devices. This is what the OS in the vm sees. The devices on the host machine which appear to work in the vm do so because VirtualBox passes the data form the physical to the virtual machine. This only happens for some devices, not all.

It may be possible to read your USB device from the vm, but it might take a bit of work.