I connected my wife’s identical (HW-wise) notebook to the OS and it connected OK (CH340 driver). The only USB usage difference that I know of between her system and mine is that I use a Keyspan USB to Serial adapter to connect to other devices. I then loaded the Win XP driver (listed as CH341) on my system and that worked. (When it configures it says its a CH340 driver). The rest of the FW update was simple.
Thanks