virtualbox.org

I realize there are many posts on this topic, but believe me, I have tried everything I could find on this forum. I have Windows Vista Home Premium (x64) running a virtual Windows XP Pro (32-bit) and I absolutely cannot get any USB jumpdrives to work. I tested Virtualbox on my desktop (Windows Vista Ultimate 32-bit) and loaded an XP VM to see if the USB support really worked, and it took some configuring, but I eventually got it to work consistently. However, when I moved on to my laptop, I have not been able to get one thing to work one time. I could REALLY use the USB capable virtual machine for work to program various different pieces of hardware (and the software suites used to program these devices will not play well on vista) but I have been using USB Jumpdrives to test (because I do not have the stuff from work handy as it is a weekend and I am on vacation next week) and I have not been able to get anything to work. Here is what I have tried so far:

-Not changing the filters in any way, simply checking the option to enable USB and the sub-option for USB2.0

-Adding a blank filter name . or (.) or just the default blank filter name

-Adding a filter based off of a specific device I was trying to get to work, trying all options under the remote drop-down,

-All of the above with USB2.0 support un-checked.

-Tried Using the menu on the virtual machine window to 'capture' the device, sometimes it is there to capture, sometimes not, when it is there, it always says it is already captured, and if I try to capture it again, I get a long error message about how it is busy.

When testing each new method, I have tried with the device plugged in when the VM boots, unplugging and plugging it back in while the VM has focus, and not plugging it in until the VM is up and running with focus, and then plugging it in.

Sometimes I am able to see the device when I am adding filters in the settings, sometimes I am not, I cannot seem to nail down a consistent reason for this.

Is it because the host is x64 and the guest machine is x32? I would really like to be able to use this for this aplication, so I would appreciate any help, thanks in advance.

There are only two ways that this will work in Vista and they are as follows:
Setup the guest to use USB in the settings and then do not setup a filter. Then select the device when you are in the guest by clicking the device tab and then the device in that you want to use in the usb section.
Other than that you can set a blank filter and then once inside the guest you unplug the device and plug it back in to get focus and it should load for you.
If none of these work then you should reinstall the VBox program by right clicking the install icon and left clicking on run as admin. select repair and once the install is complete reboot the machine.

I have tried all kinds of ways to get USB to work and these are the only way that I can make them work. Aside from that what I do is just share the thing in the host and then map it in the guest and it works every time. No more hassle with the USB in VBox. If you share the USB device from the host you must select a folder is the only catch because it must be an absolute share. So I make a folder in the USB device and then place everything else within that folder.

I figgered it out. I had tried all the normal stuff with no luck. I noticed when I went to add a filter for a specific device, a device came up in the list, 'unknown device' and then some random numbers. I had no other USB devices plugged in, so I went looking through my hardware tab, didnt notice anything, and I looked last at my programs and features in the control panel and found something that came pre-loaded on my laptop, I think it was called 'VMD USB Audio Enhancement driver'. I always keep a copy of all my machines' drivers, so I uninstalled it to see what happened. The virtual machines now immediately pick up my USB Drives. I have not been back to work yet, but here is hoping that my ultimate goal of being able to program the hardware I work on will be successful.