I have a genuine K150 here and it works fine on XP and Linux. It will not be recognized as a K150, only as a com (serial) port. You have to run the Microburn program and select the com port before it reports being a K150.
Windows and Linux have built-in drivers for the FTDI devices so I'm not using and additional software. Before thinking of broken ICs, check the power supply voltage from the adapter is OK. You should note that the K150 may be a clone and not meeting the specification of the original although to be honest, there isn't much on the board to go wrong. In every respect the Pickit 2 and Pickit 3 programmers are much better.