I felt I should clarify so someone reading this in the future does not get confused.

My Dell Notebook has a one serial port (COM1) with a connector (COM3 goes to an internal modem). When I connected a cable directly from the serial port to the FT-897D the radio would not upload memory settings, although it would download. As a matter of fact the radio would not stay in UPLOAD mode (it immediately displays "ERROR) when button A is pressed on the radio. If I disconnect the serial cable from the PC the radio stays in UPLOAD mode (displays "receiving"). This shows the radio is not the problem.

My ASUS notebook has only USB ports so I had to use a USB to serial converter to test. The cable I use does in fact have a Prolific chip (authentic, not a copy, verified by Prolific) but that is not germane to this test. This cable worked fine to both download and upload. I used the same serial cable as above to connect from the USB/Serial cable to the radio (so it is not a cable problem). As a point of interest this same cable and chip have functioned correctly for everything EXCEPT running HRD (supposedly due to the extremely high load HRD places on the connection).

Ergo, the serial port on the Dell Notebook is causing the problem. I do not know if it is either a hardware, firmware, or software problem. Some day I will have sufficient curiosity and time to dig into it (I retired after 42 years in the computer field).

Once again, thank you for your feedback.

John