Xenon not appearing on USB, no way to identify (Windows 10)

Just getting started with the Xenon and running right into a wall. Apologies for asking what seems like a super elementary question:

I’m just trying to identify the device and do some programming over USB. No connected scenarios, no mesh, just a wire. But while the device appears to be in Listening Mode (slow blue blink), I see nothing in Device Manager, no new serial ports appear, and “particle serial identify” doesn’t find anything. Is there no way to cut straight to USB like this?

I have two Xenons and they both behave identically. Cable and USB ports on my PC are confirmed good. Suggestions?

Very best,
Aaron

This might be due to a rather old (factory) device OS on there which doesn’t yet expose the serial interface.
You should be able to put the device in DFU Mode and update the device OS tho’.
Or you use the mobile app to flash an update via bluetooth but then cancel the rest of the setup as you are not connecting to a mesh network.

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Ah! Well of all the things to not work in the factory OS. But that was it! DFU mode + ‘particle update’ and I’ve got a serial port now. Thanks a bazillion! :+1:

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Thanks @ScruffR. This might explain some behavior I’ve seen on new Boron LTEs recently. I just pulled one out new to test my manufacturing script and couldn’t get it to respond to serial until I upgraded it. These were purchased recently, but from Mouser, so they could have been old stock.

I’ve changed my script to now flash the latest deviceOS, bootloader, and SoftDevice as the first step.

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