Hi Lisa,
I'm facing a similar Problem as Bill is facing.. From the day one when i started using the Launch pad it was happening, but until now at least i could able to download my program at some instant or the other by removing and and reconnecting the USB in one port or the other of the laptop. Two days before i got completely locked out by the emulator, it couldn't able to succeed in downlaoding the program not even a single time.
I don't have a hardware debugger. Its just with Launchpad and the USB cable connected with it. I'm using IAR workbench 5.50. It results in error of Failed to initialize device.
Then when i see in the log it shows as "COULD NOT FIND MSP-FET430UIF" on the specified COM Port.
Below is the images which i have attached in sequence after when i click download and debug.
In the below image you shall see the Error message in the Debug Log as "COULD NOT FIND MSP-FET 430 UIF in the selected com port"
After this, the Emulator screen hangs as such, until i restart the application.
Kindly let me know what i can do to solve this out.