Larry wrote:
..

Open Device Manager....

Click the + box next to USB Controllers and look for the driver Cap'n
has its name on or some USB-to-Serial driver which may be more
generic. I've never hunted this driver down, myself.

Open any USB controller driver that looks like The Cap'n and look at
the driver's author. There is a selector to DISABLE the driver
without uninstalling The Cap'n, which would free up the port so your
other software could access the USB data coming in. You can always
re-ENABLE it to make it work again for The Cap'n ...

On both of the laptops I use for navigation, I was unable to find anything
in the USB section of Device Manager that was other than Microsoft-generic.
All the usual standard drivers from about 2001 for USB hubs, etc. However
under the Ports section in Device Manager I located the virtual serial port
whose driver matched the driver I loaded from software supplied by
the manufacturer. I disabled this, but was unable to see GPS data or
capture the port with either SeaClear or ON Lite. I did not yet take a
second USB-serial adapter down to the boat yard and try that angle.

--
Good luck and good sailing.
s/v Kerry Deare of Barnegat
http://home.comcast.net/~kerrydeare