Windows does not recognize USB devices

Discussions about using Windows guests in VirtualBox.
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acb1980
Posts: 2
Joined: 29. Aug 2012, 22:12

Windows does not recognize USB devices

Post by acb1980 »

Hi,

today I tried to install some USB devices in virtualbox. I use virtualbox on a Mac OS X 10.8 host with Windows 7 running as guest. After installing the virtualbox extension package and the guest additions, I was able to activate the USB devices from Devices > USB devices (flash drives only after unmounting them in OS X). Windows also shows that it searches for drivers, but a few seconds later, it shows that the installation of the device fails. And this goes with every device I tried, whether it is a flash drive or another device (I tried to add a midi controller).

When I open the device manager in Windows, it only shows me some "unknown devices" and I can't find drivers for them. The problem is, that I don't have any special drivers for this device, since they were built in a third party software and installed with it. On other Windows systems, which are running native, the drivers are automatically found and installed.

Any ideas how to get Windows the recognize the USB devices, so that it can also install the right drivers?
noah_r
Posts: 1
Joined: 22. Sep 2012, 23:41

Re: Windows does not recognize USB devices

Post by noah_r »

Same experience. Mac OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.2 on Mac Book Pro Retina 2012. Windows 7 guest OS.

I spent several hours troubleshooting. I could not get my desired USB smart card reader to be recognized in Windows 7. (popup "USB Device Not Recognized") I also could not get a standard USB Thumb drive to be recognized. same error.
The card reader had worked many times in this past. I had the same experience without and then later with USB 2.0 extension installed.

Then fortunately I eventually found this open bug report: 7652 (forum rules will not let me post link)

I turned the number of processors back down to one and I was again able to use my USB smart card reader and external storage device in the Windows 7 Guest OS.

The bug has been around for quite a while, I wish it was better documented. (i.e. the VB ui should alert me of a problem when selecting more than one processor on a Mac.)

I'm posting a reply because it took me way to long to find out about this bug.
acb1980
Posts: 2
Joined: 29. Aug 2012, 22:12

Re: Windows does not recognize USB devices

Post by acb1980 »

noah_r wrote:Then fortunately I eventually found this open bug report: 7652 (forum rules will not let me post link)

I turned the number of processors back down to one and I was again able to use my USB smart card reader and external storage device in the Windows 7 Guest OS.

The bug has been around for quite a while, I wish it was better documented. (i.e. the VB ui should alert me of a problem when selecting more than one processor on a Mac.)

I'm posting a reply because it took me way to long to find out about this bug.
Thank you for posting this solution, I will try it as soon as possible.
blueytoo
Posts: 13
Joined: 20. Oct 2012, 08:32

Re: Windows does not recognize USB devices

Post by blueytoo »

OMG. Setting back to one CPU fixed it.

Looking for open bug report. Not 7652 or 7562 or other permutations I tried.

#9762 might be close.

#7462 looks to be the one - bug still going strong.
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MBP 17" early 2011 2.3GHz; MacOS 10.6.8 Server (64bit); Windows7 (64bit); VB 4.2.18; BootCamp 3.3
hitone
Posts: 3
Joined: 3. Jan 2013, 22:05

Re: Windows does not recognize USB devices

Post by hitone »

I am running a Vista x32 guest and have had this issue since purchasing a MacBook Air and installing VBox (a few months now). I just upgraded VBox to 4.2.6 r82870 before finding this post, hoping the USB issues would be fixed. No USB devices are recognized when my Vista guest has 4 CPUs, but setting the CPU number to 1 seems to fix it. Thanks for sharing this post.
ronalddb
Posts: 2
Joined: 15. May 2013, 23:02

Re: Windows does not recognize USB devices

Post by ronalddb »

Hi, I'm having the same issue here. I have Win 7 as a guest in an Ubuntu 13.04 host. When I plug my USB devices to my Ubuntu, they run perfectly, but when I open Win 7, it doesn't recognize e.g. my mobile (the mouse and keyboard are recognized).
In the Device Manager, i get: Other Devices -> Base System Device with an exclamation (!) sign on the side, meaning that it isn't properly installed. I've tried installing all the drivers from the manufacturer of my laptop (I'm running an i3 Lenovo, with Bluetooth, HDMI graphics, 2x3.0 USB), but none of them can be installed, although most are recognized (except for the WiFi and Bluetooth cards, but I don't care much about this issue right now).
Do you have any ideas on what I could do? I will appreciate your support, since I have mostly installed Win7 in VB to have access to my phone and MS Outlook, and one of the reasons isn't really working...
Any ideas will be well received! Thanks in advance
ronalddb
Posts: 2
Joined: 15. May 2013, 23:02

Re: Windows does not recognize USB devices

Post by ronalddb »

...sorry, I could have also mentioned that my laptop also has 2x2.0 USB ports, which aren't detected either (in case you could think that the incompatibility will be due to the USB 3.0 thing)
noteirak
Site Moderator
Posts: 5229
Joined: 13. Jan 2012, 11:14
Primary OS: Debian other
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Guest OSses: Debian, Win 2k8, Win 7
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Re: Windows does not recognize USB devices

Post by noteirak »

Please read Minimum information needed for assistance and make sure you include the guest config aswell.
Hyperbox - Virtual Infrastructure Manager - https://apps.kamax.lu/hyperbox/
Manage your VirtualBox infrastructure the free way!
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