There are a number of different manufacturers of ESP32 dev boards all with different drivers. First off, try the steps in the troubleshooting guide.
 
Do you have a link to the board you purchased? Are you using a USB data cable (Some USB cables only have wiring for charging). Does the board appear as a USB device when plugged in? If it doesn’t you may have a faulty board.
 
Is your PC or Mac locked out of USB devices (My work Mac is locked so I cannot connect a USB device). My work PC (Windows 10) is locked out as well.

Just managed to find out it is the USB cable – actually got it working – gone through installation adding drivers etc several times – and it is the USB cable! Thanks – will see if I can get past the first module.
 

Hi Brian.

I’m glad you found the issue.
Meanwhile, if you’re not happy with the eBook, or if you find it is not for you, you can ask for a refund: https://randomnerdtutorials.com/returns-and-refunds/

I’ll mark this issue as resolved. If you need further help, you just need to open a new question in our forum.

Regards,
Sara

Just a heads up in the event you were unaware of it, not all cables will program, some of them are just for powering up the device, while others are wired to do both. They look the same but first thing I usually try is a different cable seeing how I have several ,some of which were cables that were used only to charge my other devices. These are good people here and they bend over backwards to help and support their members and non members, can’t tell you how many times I’ve done stupid things and I always got help and no sarcasm.

Thank you for taking the time to reply – I think the frustration of failing to get it working got to me. I thought the easy bit would be getting my laptop to run the little device. My next task is to build a raspberry pi laptop to run the device – using a power bank – a low voltage touch screen and the new Pi zero – so fingers crossed,

Great, sounds like a nice project