2 Microsoft Sidewinder controller conflict solution (maybe)

[Cadet Mahoney]

Just want to give some advice to ppl who want to use 2 identicle controllers in Virtualbox emulating Windows XP32, I may be wrong but I'll give my experience anyway

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Problem: 2 of the same controllers don't work.
Solution: explained below (hopefully).

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Problem:

I have an XP virtual machine Guest running on a Windows 7 host.

I am just running XP to play with 2 Sidewinder controllers (same model) no longer supported in anything over xp32 (xp64 up don't work).

However I cannot play with both of these controllers at the same time. I can play with one at a time fine, but plugging in two at the same time gives me this error when selecting one in menu:
"Devices > USB Devices > SideWinder Game Pad Pro USB version 1.0".

Code: Select all

Failed to attach the USB device Microsoft SideWinder Game Pad Pro USB version 1.0 [0102] to the virtual machine WINXP .

USB device 'Microsoft SideWinder Game Pad Pro USB version 1.0' with UUID {a63038a0-5932-425a-8c07-4d10e0dc05e4} is busy with a previous request. Please try again later.

Result Code: E_INVALIDARG (0x80070057)
Component: HostUSBDevice
Interface: IHostUSBDevice {173b4b44-d268-4334-a00d-b6521c9a740a}
Callee: IConsole {8ab7c520-2442-4b66-8d74-4ff1e195d2b6}

They both have the same vendor ID and so on in "Oracle VM Virtual Box Manager -> Settings -> USB -> USB Device Filters".

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Solution:

My version: virtualbox 4.3.24
have: "Oracle_VM_VirtualBox_Extension_Pack-4.3.24-98716.vbox-extpack" installed

Running the XP operating system in vbox with the desktop active:
- remove/detach both usb game controllers in the menu at the top "Devices > USB Devices > SideWinder Game Pad Pro USB version 1.0"
- Restart XP by going into the it's own Start menu in bottom left.
- Wait for it to start up again.

In Win7 host environment:

"Oracle VM Virtual Box Manager -> Settings -> USB -> USB Device Filters"
Remove all USB devices (assuming there where some there).
Unplug both USB game controllers.
Now plug in one only and select it with the +(plus) icon button with all the details automatically filled in.
Make sure you have "Enable USB 2.0 (EHCI) Controller" enabled (you'll have to install Oracle_VM_VirtualBox_Extension_Pack-4.3.24-98716.vbox-extpack). The Extension Pack version depends on what version of vbox you have installed of course.

No Go back into vbox and select both of the controllers. If you don't get an error message than reset with the bottom left start menu. Once back into the desktop go into controllers and check both are working. I don't know if this is the best solution but this is what I did to the best of my immediate recollection of what I did.

I'm guessing this may also resolve conflicts with similar old WinXP controllers when you try and use 2 of the same model. I've tried VMworkstation and Windows Virtual Manager and this program just seems more comfortable to use, also the problem occurred in both those programs too thanks.

[mpack]

VirtualBox can only route USB messages to and from the device if it is able to uniquely identify which device it needs to talk to.

So basically, there is no way to circumvent this requirement. If your solution works at all I'd say it was either luck, or your step of completely filling in the USB filter details was what really allowed it to pick a particular device. If that kind of device is intended to support multiplayer games then probably they have to be separable, e.g. the serial numbers would be different.

If that's all it is then there's no need to go through all that uninstall-reinstall joo joo. Just edit the USB filters, create two, each filled in enough to distinguish one of your two devices.