Sarge,
Most communications issues between the radio and computer is the USB cord drivers. If you have the FTDI chip branded cord it should be a plug and play, as windows installs the drivers and most time it installs a correct driver for that. Now if you are using a off brand or most times counterfeit prolific chipped cord, with that I reccommend to reinstall the prolific 3.2.0.0 driver. Here is detailed instructions from the great site
miklor.com site for windows and mac.
http://www.miklor.com/COM/UV_Drivers.php
Also it is recommended once you have the correct driver installed, is to use the same usb port each time. The driver will not follow the cord if you bounce around usb ports. Hope this helps. let me know your results.