Many modern USB-to-serial chips are optimized for 8-N-1 (8 data bits, no parity, 1 stop bit). While the chip may advertise 5-bit support, the actual firmware on the device may:
The error is a classic case of a legacy serial requirement colliding with modern driver limitations. More often than not, the problem is not the baud rate (9600) or parity (None), but the unusual combination of 5 data bits with 1 stop bit . desired serial mode not supported -9600 5 n 1-
If you have landed on this article, you have likely encountered this error while trying to establish a serial connection via a terminal emulator (like PuTTY, Tera Term, Minicom, or screen) or within a custom software application. You specified the parameters 9600 baud , 5 data bits , No parity , and 1 stop bit —and the system rejected it. Many modern USB-to-serial chips are optimized for 8-N-1
. This was a common standard for legacy teletype machines (Baudot code) but is rarely supported by modern USB-to-serial adapters. Primary Causes Hardware Limitation : Many USB-to-serial converters (especially those with If you have landed on this article, you
DCB dcb = 0; dcb.DCBlength = sizeof(DCB); dcb.BaudRate = CBR_9600; dcb.ByteSize = 5; dcb.Parity = NOPARITY; dcb.StopBits = TWOSTOPBITS; // not ONESTOPBIT SetCommState(hPort, &dcb);