I have just loaded PICBasic Pro on my netbook running Windows 7 (32bit). It programs a device a couple of times then, during the "compile and program" the second DOS window freezes. The Power LED, Target LED and Busy LED remain lit on the PICKit 2. It won't program a device again until I delete and reload MPLAB and PICBasic Pro.

I am using:
MPLAB IDE v8.7
PICBasic Pro 2.60C
Microstudio 4.0.0.0
PK2CMD V1.20

The programmer is an old PICKit 2 programmer that I won about 3 years ago (may be older)

I have searched this forum but can't find a thread with a similar problem.

I see there is a firmware update for the PICKit 2 but it is a HEX file and the Microchip website doesn't have instructions on how to load it.

I am so frustrated -Please help