setting up ESP32 with Arduino IDE

@robotbuilder ,

I don't usually jump in when it's related to ESP32.  Ron has far more experience with them than I do.  Now that I've read the whole thread, and see that it seems you're having more troubles with drivers and Windows, I put in my two cents worth.  Ron, doesn't quite have the perspective of dealing with Windows. 😉 

There are two chipsets that ESP8266 and ESP32 seem to use.  They are CH340 and CP210x.  I went though my collection of ESP32's and I only had one that is using the CP210x that you mention.  It's not quite like your picture, but hopefully they're close enough.  I had to install the boards 2.0.9 and when I connected mine, it showed the same issue as yours in the Device Manager having the yellow triangle.  

I tried the suggestion... of disconnecting the ESP32, deleting the driver, re-connecting.  It reloaded the driver automatically, but still had the yellow triangle.

I rebooted the computer, and opened everything and the yellow triangle was gone.

Opening the Arduino IDE, I tried to upload the Blink sketch example.  I got this error:

To fix that, when it get to the stage of:

Connecting....

Press the BOOT button on your ESP32 for about a second and release; and in a couple of seconds later, you should see:

...and it started blinking.

This really sucks having to press the button.  I believe this has to do with the CP210x chipset, because I never have to manually do anything with all my CH340 chipset boards.  

Hope this helps.

@inq FYI @robotbuilder Excellent! I will have a windows PC up and running soon, maybe 2 weeks, maybe 2 months, who knows. All I know for sure is over the 34 years I used a PC I did have the occasional driver issue, but for this driver, it's just a download and open the zip, then open the exe.  Good luck.

Posted by: @zander

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@inq FYI @robotbuilder Excellent! I will have a windows PC up and running soon, maybe 2 weeks, maybe 2 months, who knows. All I know for sure is over the 34 years I used a PC I did have the occasional driver issue, but for this driver, it's just a download and open the zip, then open the exe.  Good luck.

Actually, I think the CP210x driver was already pre-installed or automatically downloaded.  It was plug n play.  The CH340 was definitely something I've always had to install on all my Windows boxes.  However, after my limited exposure to the CP210x, I'll always check the vendor's add on their ESP8266/ESP32 to make sure they use the CH340.  I don't want to have to press the bleeping button every time!  Although, after the first install,  you can always move over to using Over The Air updates of the sketch.

@inq While I knew that some boards needed a button press and others did not, I had yet noticed it was chip-specific. Thanks for that tidbit of info.

Posted by: @zander

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@inq While I knew that some boards needed a button press and others did not, I had yet noticed it was chip-specific. Thanks for that tidbit of info.

I don't know that it is chip specific, but I know I've never had to press it on a CH340 chip board.  Really, this one ESP32 is the only one I have that has the CP210X on it... and the first time I needed to push the button.  I found that tid-bit in the trouble shooting guide that @robotbuilder linked.

All my ESP32-CAM boards I got recently and the ones I got years ago are all CH340 chips also. All my ESP8266 boards are CH340 except I have a couple of ESP8266 boards with the 16MB flash memory and they use CP210X.  

Just checked... the 16MB ESP8266 using the CP210X did not need to require me to press the button.  

So... I don't know what defines the need to press it.  Go figure.

@inq I am what is known in the biz as a hardened user so when I encounter a board that fails to upload, I just try again, maybe re-load the IDE, whatever it takes to get it to work. Sooo, yes I have had boards that need a button press, but TBH I have suspected for some time that occasionally I was half asleep and didn't press the button but it uploaded anyway. Now I will pay more attention but my hunch is if the board has either chip it should upload with NO button press.