Serial to USB adapter

Hello everybody!
This is my very first post in a computer forum so please don’t shot at me! The OS is WinXP home edition, the laptop it’s an HP 7000 something, 3.2 GHz, 80 GB drive, 512 MB ram, CD-DVD writer, 4 USB ports. The car scanner has a 9pin RS232 female output and I needed an adapter to connect the scanner to my USB.
Recently I bought a Serial to USB adapter off ebay. After installing the driver by XP itself and updating the driver from the CD the adaptor came with, my USB connection goes under HID (Human Interface Device) like a generic one and it’s not listed under one of my 4 USB ports as a Serial Adapter as it should and therefore it’s not seen by the scanner.
Now, in one of the files from the CD it’s saying the Cypress name and basically the Serial to USB adapter I bought it’s a No name.
Q: Is there a way to force XP to recognize my Serial to USB adapter as it is and not like a generic USB under the Device Manager? I had a Prolific Serial to USB adapter in the past and it worked as it should - I had to return it for financial reasons.
Thanks a lot,
Oneman42