VMWare doesn't see a USB device that XPM does!

I've been looking at VMWare Player as an alternative to XPM under Virtual PC. I installed it - it does certainly seem snappier than XPM so I figured I'd try it out.

One of the reasons I use a virtual machine is that my universal remote - a Marantz RC9500 which has a USB port - is not recognized in Win7 and there is no compatible driver for it which will load in Win7. So I need to run under a virtual XP to make any updates to it using the control software supplied by Marantz.

This works in XPM, even if it is slow. The USB device shows up in the menu area on top and I can install it using the driver software which is available from the Marantz control program installation.

I set up Player to Show All USB Devices, but whether I plug in the device and start the Player VM, or start the VM then plug in the device, it does not show up as a USB device. This is a real problem for me if there's no way to fix it. I'm hoping it's a simple matter of me doing something wrong. Help appreciated.

Hi there
often this is cause by the "Generic Virtual HOST usbdriver" not being loaded on to the HOST.

You can often fix this by in the vm menu on your guest machine type DISCONNECT FROM HOST the usb device.

The host will then try and find software for the device (which it won't of course)

Now you can re-attach the USB to your VM and it should work.

Now connect it again to the VM.

It's not normally a problem to get a USB device connected to a VM.


cheers
jimbo

jimbo45 said:

Hi there
often this is cause by the "Generic Virtual HOST usbdriver" not being loaded on to the HOST.

You can often fix this by in the vm menu on your guest machine type DISCONNECT FROM HOST the usb device.

The host will then try and find software for the device (which it won't of course)

Now you can re-attach the USB to your VM and it should work.

Now connect it again to the VM.

It's not normally a problem to get a USB device connected to a VM.


cheers
jimbo

jimbo, some elaboration please. When you say "You can often fix this by in the vm menu on your guest machine type DISCONNECT FROM HOST the usb device", how is that done?

Part of my confusion is the whole guest / host thing. My base system is Windows 7, on which the VMWare Player is installed. Is Win7 the guest to the XP Virtual Machine or host to the VMWare Player? Do you mean the VM dropdown in the VMWare Player control panel? Or is it somewhere within the runtime XP VM that I launch from the control panel?

BTW, if Win7 is the host, the device never connects to it as there is no Win7 usable driver for it. That's one of the reasons I'm using a XP VM. The device works in real XP and Windows' own XP Mode.

I found that AMD computers have installed a driver (AMD USB FILTER DRIVER). This can be in ATI insaller or in Programs. Uninstall it, reboot your computer and magically you can see your hidden USB hradware in VMWare. I have a Windows 7 x64 as Host.

Related links:
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/...b-22f18dfa3555
Workstation FAQ