USB problem

R

rmclachlan

Bit poster
Anyone have a fix for a problem where Parallels forget that a USB device is attached when returning from suspend mode. I have to reboot windows to get the device to be recognised again. This seems to be a problem since v4 and it is driving me crazy!
 
First...do not ever suspend vm and quit parallels. My advice is to always shut down the vm and don't use suspend. IMO, suspend is the problem.
 
I am not sure that would be a real solution for me. The whole point is that suspend and resume should be bulletproof.
 
I don't understand...why would shutting down windows be an issue? Suspending the vm is not the issue....the problem is that windows requires shutdown to "update" its system. If you don't shut it down, it won't update....and you will lose things you have done to the windows OS (like adding usb components)
 
I don't require windows to update in this situation. I do require parallels to remember the last hardware settings since it went into suspend mode on resume. Parallels used to do this well until something was changed in v4. I do understand that occasionally requires a complete reboot to update it's system settings but it does not require this all the time AFAIK.
 
I will admit I know virtually nothing about windows per se....I am relying on what others have told me (including parallels tech support)...I defer to you for a better understanding of what suspend is supposed to do...I do know I have had no issues since I stopped using suspend, FWIW.
 
I do not have any superior knowledge regarding Windows. I am just making an assumption, perhaps wrongly, that suspend and resume should be fairly transparent in operation. Perhaps Parallels tech support could help out here?
 
rmaclachlan: I don't think Statman was referring to Windows Update - I think he was referring to Windows' tendency to update various internal status flags when shutting down.

Have you tried shutting it down with the device attached then making sure to have the device attached before starting?

I haven't had the kind of issues you describe, but then again I never suspend / resume; preferring to shut down the VM the "usual" way. Why tempt fate? :)
 
I have exactly the same problem. In Parallels 3 everything worked very fine - but with Parallels 4 I have to reboot to get USB devices to be recognized by Windows XP again. After Suspend/Resume the USB device is captured by the Parallels application as configured but by Windows XP itself.
Please fix this!
 
I find a way without the reboot: open the Device Manager and play around with the USB entries! In most cases the missing USB device will be re-activated!
 
devcon is cool.
other option is the manual way: Start Menu -> Settings -> Control Panel -> System (Hardware tab) -> Device Manager; click on Universal Serial Bus controllers, right click scan For Hardware Changes, works every time
 
Yes, I had this problem too. It has nothing to do with suspending/restarting Windows, which works perfectly fine in v3 and v4 thankyouverymuch, Statman.

The problem is when adding a USB device (in my case, plugging a USB SD card reader into the machine), Parallels jumps up and asks me if I want to use the device in the host or the guest environment. This is new to 4.0. Choosing the host environment works fine.

Choosing the guest environment doesn't do anything in parallels 4.0, as Windows for some reason doesn't see it. Neither does doing what you had to do in 3.0, which is manually going to the "Devices" menu in parallels and adding the USB reader. In either case, you have to get Windows Device Manager to rescan for USB devices.

Hopefully this bug will get fixed SOON in another revision, because this is NOT an intuitive way to interact with these devices, which I have to plug and unplug many times a day!

(Note: another way to get to Device Manager is clicking Start, right-click on My Computer, and go to the Hardware tab.)
 
I've had this same problem ever since upgrading to Parallels 4. Have reinstalled Parallels tools countless times and have found that the only way to get Windows to recognize my USB MFP is to go into Device Manager, disable and then enable the Standard Enhanced PCI to USB Host Controller.

That's a bit annoying, to say the least. The previous poster who suggested devcon had a great idea. Unfortunately, the rescan command didn't work for me. I did find a nice solution others may find useful.

I created a .bat file using devcon which automatically disables and then enables the PCI to USB controller. Seems to work. Here's what I did. Install the devcon.exe file into winnt\system32. Open a command prompt and type devcon find *. Look for the first PCI to USB host controller and copy the path (should be something like PCI\VEN_8086....)

Open notepad (in Windows) and put in these two lines
devcon disable PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_265C&SUBSYS_04001AB8&REV_02\2&EBB567F&0&EF
devcon enable PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_265C&SUBSYS_04001AB8&REV_02\2&EBB567F&0&EF

Your paths after "disable" and "enable" may be different than mine. Save the file as some .bat file on your desktop in Windows. Double-click it to get it to run. That seems to do the trick for me. For those who found the "rescan" command to work, just type "devcon rescan" in the bat file.

Hope some of you find it useful, but hopefully Parallels fixes this thing.
 
I've been struggling with this problem since December of 2008. My workaround has been to run the "Add New Hardware" utility, but it doesn't work on Parallels build 3810 and later, so I dare not update.

I don't see a "Standard Enhanced PCI to USB Host Controller" in my Device Manager. I have an "Intel 82801FB/FMB USB Universal Host Controller" and an "Intel USB2 Enhanced Host Controller". Would this be my equivalent?

I can't find any file with "82801" in the name.

Does this work in the current build of Parallels?
 
BDM said:
I've been struggling with this problem since December of 2008. My workaround has been to run the "Add New Hardware" utility, but it doesn't work on Parallels build 3810 and later, so I dare not update.

I don't see a "Standard Enhanced PCI to USB Host Controller" in my Device Manager. I have an "Intel 82801FB/FMB USB Universal Host Controller" and an "Intel USB2 Enhanced Host Controller". Would this be my equivalent?

I can't find any file with "82801" in the name.

Does this work in the current build of Parallels?
Click to expand...

Both the bat file and the Device Manager methods work for me in the current build. If you're using the Device Manager method, try disabling and re-enabling the first USB controller and see what happens. If it doesn't work, try the next one.
 
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