All three of the USB-Serial adapters I've tried worked well with the
laptop and desktops I tried them with, connecting to an LX5000 (with
Windows 98) and LX7007 (with XP).

The key is to have the adapter manufacturer's Windows driver loaded
for adapter -- Windows will sometimes say that the (new) device is
ready to use, even before installing the driver. I have been bitten by
this before.

2NO