[Solved] USB Issues with VB 5.2 running on Windows 10 (1709) Host

[Chris_AT]

Hi everybody,

Hope I am not totally wrong with this topic here - in case I'd be despite having looked for something that could fit I'd be grateful for advise.

I am running VirtualBox since a while and am actually quite happy with it - but for sure wouldn't call me mature on this.
So far I managed to deal with things with the help of the forum and google - but now I am stuck - so any help would be highly appreciated.

I am running VB on a Windows host (Windows 10 Enterprise 64 Bit, V1709) and 2 weeks ago I upgraded to VB 5.2 - including the respective extension Pack.
Having tried today to attach some USB Stick (3.0) while working with a virtual machine (all those seem to work fine) I noticed that Windows didn't recognize it anymore at all - opening the Windows Device manager didn't really work anymore (Windows telling it isn't responding).
A reboot ended up in a blue screen telling something about "Driver Power State Failure".

So I tried to check Windows with SFC / scannow after running dism /online /cleanup-image /scanhealth & dism /online /cleanup-image /checkhealth - without any complaint what so ever.
Tried to upgrade VB to Version 5.2.2 r119230 and also installed Oracle_VM_VirtualBox_Extension_Pack-5.2.2-119230.vbox-extpack - but the problem pretty much persists.

Without starting VB things behave normal, no issue pops up at all - still once I start VB (only the VB manager is enough already) attaching an USB drive results in this not being recognized anymore - and a reboot taking quite some time (~ 5- 10 minutes) - if it doesn't even show a bluescreen as mentioned above...

In case anybody wonders what hardware is underneath - the USB 3 controller is all on an Asus Z170-A Mainboard and seems to be some ASMedia thing - not sure if that's of relevance though...

Would be great if there would be any ideas how to proceed to fix this...

In case the recommendation would be to do an uninstall and new installation of VB my question would then be how I have to take care of the existing VM's - where I do use snapshots extensively...

Thanks a lot!

Chris

[socratis]

Uninstalling and installing VirtualBox (or VBox, but not VB ) will not affect your VMs.

[Chris_AT]

Uninstalling and installing VirtualBox (or VBox, but not VB ) will not affect your VMs.

Thanks for your feedback!

So I won't run into issues with an uninstall and brand new install having VM's with snaphots?
I just know that taking these and trying to plug them into a VBox ( ) installation on another PC didn't work for me at all - made me basically lose everything after the "base VM" state - so everything that wouldn't have been written into the root disc image file (hope I managed to express properly...)

Wouldn't be such a re-installation be basically the same?

Chris

[socratis]

1. You should *really* stop the practice of multiple snapshots. It's not safe, as in if one of them breaks, the whole thing collapses.
2. If you want to move a VM somewhere else (including snapshots), see "Moving a VM".
3. Uninstalling/Re-installing VirtualBox is the same as you would do with your Firefox, LibreOffice or any other program. You do not lose your data. Virtual machines are data. VirtualBox is the program that manages that data. Just like iTunes is managing your music...

[Chris_AT]

Ok... so I did try to uninstall and reinstall VBox...and yes my VM's are still there..

But I have to admit things didn't go as smoothly as I actually expected.
Uninstalling executed - and while the entry in the add/remove programs was gone, the rest obviously wasn't.
So I did cautiously rename the ProgramFiles\Oracle directory and also removed the vbox*.sys drivers from C:\Windows\system32\drivers\, subsequently removed the VBox* entries from the registry HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\ and restarted my PC.
(yes, made a disk image before )

To be on the safe side I tried to update all my drivers what so ever and interestingly my PC did boot and shut down way quicker than it had before.

Then after a further reboot I installed VBox again - and ran a test with adding an USB3.0 drive after having opened the VBox VM manager - but again Windows couldn't find it anymore.

VM's seem to be running fine though - except some complains for I hadn't installed the VBox Extension Pack yet (all Version 5.2.2-119230).
So I catched up with this - still same behaviour:

Not possible to add any new USB3.0 drive (tried various) after having opened the VM Manager.
(already attached USB3.0 drives don't stop to work though when the VM Manager is being opened)

Once I try the shutdown Windows after having had opened the VM Manager and had tried to add some USB3.0 drive it reproduce-able takes ages again (5-10 minutes) and some blue screen (Driver Power State Failure) shows up sometimes (not always though) as well.

Now while writing this I quickly checked if attaching some USB3.0 drive to Windows (not having opened the VM Manager yet) works well.. and it does - so I can't imagine it's related to anything else that might just need some more time to start...

Last but not least I noticed that even not having had the VM Manager started windows shuts down clearly slower than without having VBox installed - not an issue and not tremendous but maybe something worth to mention.

Thanks again for the feedback!

Chris

[socratis]

1. Uninstall VirtualBox. Your VMs are going to be untouched. Reboot.
2. You may want to clean up your registry and/or filesystem at this point. CCleaner is a freeware utility that could help you. Mind the installation, it comes with "offers" from 3rd parties, known as "bundleware". Also, check out Device Cleanup program that helps you to remove any unused devices from your computer.
3. Download (if you haven't already) the latest VirtualBox and its matching ExtPack. Store them in a common location, i.e. not on "Desktop", or "Documents", but to "Public/Downloads" for example.
4. Locate the downloaded file in Windows Explorer. Right-click on the installer and select "Run-as-Administrator", even if you are the administrator. At the end of the installation, choose to "Start Oracle VM VirtualBox". Do not worry if your VMs do not show up.
5. If you're going to install the ExtPack, go to File » Preferences » Extensions. Click on the icon with the orange, down-pointing arrow on the right. Select the ExtPack from the previous steps.
6. Quit VirtualBox. Re-start VirtualBox as you would normally, i.e. from the Desktop shortcut or the Start menu.
7. Update the Guest Additions (GAs) in your guest(s), if the GAs are available for a specific guest.

[Chris_AT]

Ok, will do - just a quick question: is there any more detailed and reliable / trusted guide what to exactly delete from the filesystem and the registry?
CCleaner is - to my understanding - a tool which usage Microsoft clearly recommends NOT to use - so maybe better to do manually?

Sorry if I might be a bit nagging in this regards...

[socratis]

is there any more detailed and reliable / trusted guide what to exactly delete from the filesystem and the registry?

It's called the Microsoft Installer. But apparently it's not working 100% reliably, hence the need for 3rd party applications.

CCleaner is - to my understanding - a tool which usage Microsoft clearly recommends NOT to use

I would like to see a reference and a justification about that. Citation needed.

so maybe better to do manually?

You're free to do as you want. I cannot make such a recommendation or not.

[Chris_AT]

CCleaner is - to my understanding - a tool which usage Microsoft clearly recommends NOT to use.

I would like to see a reference and a justification about that. Citation needed.

There has been a lot of noise around this (not sure to which extent in non in the not German speaking regions) - I think based on the following statement:

http://news.thewindowsclub.com/microsof ... ree-80369/


Reading things like

https://www.extremetech.com/internet/25 ... le-samsung

are not a good basis to build up trust in the usage either.

Please don't misunderstand - I don't want to start a discussion on the usage in general, that's ofc up to everybody's preference - I just dont want to rush into problems either...so just being a bit hesitant....

If there is no directive though on what to remove manually I guess there won't be an alternative but using CCleaner anyway - for else finding all locations will likely not be successful either - and a reinstallation of WIndows is not an option for me...

[Chris_AT]

So I now gladly managed to follow your instructions (yes, ran both CCleaner & Device Cleanup) and was able to able to pretty much complete each step successfully except

5 ==> The ExtPack had been installed successfully already, besides there is no "orange, down pointing arrow on the right".
7 ==> I did'nt start any VM, so that's not applicable

Point though is, that this didn't change anything. The behaviour is still persisting:

Everything runs fine, but once I opened the VM Manager connection an additional USB3.0 drive (to the host!) doesn't work anymore.
Opening the Device manager and have it look for changed hardware - which usually is a matter of a second - doesn't finish and you have to kill the device manager.
Rebooting of the host takes quite some extra time after such a situation.
USB3.0 Drives that were connected before keep working though.

Pretty strange...

...got any further idea please on how to address this?

[socratis]

Nope, nothing more that *I* can suggest, let's see if a Windows expert might have a better idea...

[Chris_AT]

Just wanted to let you know that for what reason ever things currently seem to work again.
It leaves me pretty confused as I am really not aware what did cause that change.
All I did to my knowledge - that might fit from a timely aspect - was to update to the latest Nvidia graphics driver yesterday.

While I have no idea why a graphics driver should actually cause the experienced behaviour I tend to consider the fact that things seem to be working now being a gift.
I won't refuse that but just pray it's not being revoked again..

In any case a big thanks to socratis for his support and anybody who might have thought about this as well!
..and yes.. did take a look to Hyper-V on another machine as well.. but.. uhm.. no..at least not for the time being

Thanks to everybody who puts lots and lots of efforts into VBox and all around! I do like it lots!
Just had to be said as well...

[socratis]

I don't see any immediate connection between updating your graphics drivers and the USB started working. Unless it jolted something in the system

Glad you got it going finally, marking this as [Solved].

[Marc Compere]

This issue is marked SOLVED but from what I can read it is not, at least in a way that is constructive.

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In VirtualBox, the Settings | USB | 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0 'add' buttons do not recognize any device there to install.

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[Marc Compere]

Socratis seems to be posting with dates about 7 years behind the rest.