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My Win XP guest is set to use USB 2.0 EHCI controller but will not recognize newer USB 3.0 drives. I tried to enable USB 3.0 using the "USB 3.0 support in XP guests" guide located in these forums (can't post link due to being new member) After I run the setextradata command the VM fails to boot running the command again to remove the extra data allows the VM to start again. There is an error message generated from the failed boot "VERR_PDM_NO_USB_PORTS" I realize that is an error related to USB 3.0, I have gone through the trouble shooting section to no avail.

Maybe i'm overlooking something simple, I've racked my brain all weekend, does anyone have any guidance/suggestion/comments?

EDIT: I realize now my title may be confusing......usb 3.0 works fine on the host just simply stated the host OS in the title.

XP does not natively know what USB3 is. Try this Guide for getting it working in your XP Guest: viewtopic.php?f=28&t=74575.

If you plug a USB3 device into a host USB3 port then your device will work in USB3 mode. VirtualBox can't change that behaviour (*), and XP can't talk USB3 without help. So, either plug the device into a USB2 host port (a USB2 hub in a USB3 port would also work), or else install USB3 support in the XP guest as "multiOS" suggests.

(*) Yes, USB3 ports fall back to USB2 mode when you plug in a USB2 device. But that is not your situation. You have plugged a USB3 device into a USB3 port, but the OS you are running (XP) doesn't support USB3.

mpack wrote:If you plug a USB3 device into a host USB3 port then your device will work in USB3 mode. VirtualBox can't change that behaviour (*), and XP can't talk USB3 without help.

I never considered that.....great info thanks!

multiOS wrote:XP does not natively know what USB3 is. Try this Guide for getting it working in your XP Guest:

I went back through the guide you posted, the VM will boot now with USB 3.0 xHCI controller enabled. While the 3.0 controller is enabled I cannot use a USB2.0 thumb drive that works just fine with USB 2.0 EHCI enabled and definitely no USB 3.0 thumb drives would work.

picture shows extra data enabled.

Did you download and install the required USB 3.0 Driver in the XP guest as mentioned in the Guide?

multiOS wrote:Did you download and install the required USB 3.0 Driver in the XP guest as mentioned in the Guide?

I have downloaded and installed the required driver, everything seemed to install correctly, admittedly it not something I've dealt with much. I looked in device manager in the USB section and see there is a driver related error on this USB Root Hub device and it is a driver error but I cannot not get it to recognize/find a driver on the local system.

I created a new clean Win XP VM and ran through the steps again, it seems to me its a driver install/compatibility issue. Although i'm not sure how to fix that, it seems that windows isn't recognizing the driver.

Is there maybe a step I'm missing after running "RENESAS-USB3-Host-Driver-30230-setup.exe"??

If the only thing you did was to run the Renesas drivers setup, then yes you missed a step, the "setextradata" step. Please read the guide again: viewtopic.php?f=28&t=74575

J1081 wrote:Is there maybe a step I'm missing after running "RENESAS-USB3-Host-Driver-30230-setup.exe"??

That was meant as in relation to installation of the driver. I followed all steps in the guide as shown, it seems as though there is a still a driver issue. Not sure of that just what it seems to me.

Is there some particular reason that XP absolutely must control the USB bit directly? Why not simply access the drive as a shared folder? I rarely even bother to enable USB in my XP guests.

mpack wrote:Is there some particular reason that XP absolutely must control the USB bit directly?

The short answer is no there is not particular reason, at this point it's really just a matter of pride not wanting to admit defeat.....lol. Shared folder is the way I'm currently using USB 3.0 sticks. I have some legacy software that interfaces with PLC's and ultimately writes data to a database, otherwise I would not be using Win XP. USB access by the VM is important which I have currently via USB 2.0 thumb drives so its not critical to the success of this project.

What this all boils down to is that there is some Rockwell Automation software that is needed for this whole system to run, as such a key must be present for the software to start, it is on a thumb drive, currently a USB 2.0 drive. Just doing forward thinking about the longevity of this system it would be nice to be able to transfer that key to a USB 3.0 drive.

'J1081',
I just repeated the procedure as described in the USB 3.0 support in XP guests thread. No problem. Can you tell me at which point your setup failed?

J1081 wrote:a key must be present for the software to start, it is on a thumb drive, currently a USB 2.0 drive

Are you referring to a file on the drive, or is the device in fact a dongle and not really a drive? That would have provided the excellent reason why you must have direct USB access. But... I should warn that dongles tend to have tricky timing requirements that can't be guaranteed by a virtual USB implementation. I.e. even if you get the procedure right there's no telling how reliable the system will be, or even if it works at all.

Personally, I'd look to P2V an XP image onto modern hardware. It isn't hard: that's how I migrated my XP host from old PC to new PC up to the Win10 era (I switched from XP to Win10). It's likely you won't be able to use USB3 ports on the modern hardware, but most provide USB2 ports as well (which you can ensure when you buy the PC). Plus you can plug in the aforementioned USB2 hub: though that too can affect the timing of a dongle.

mpack wrote:Are you referring to a file on the drive, or is the device in fact a dongle and not really a drive?

Yes the Software key is a file on a USB flash drive. However it has protections on moving and copying, worst case scenario I can move it to the VM hard drive for many reasons I would rather it reside on the Flash drive. It is only needed when the software starts, this PC is rarely powered off except for extended power failures or maintenance.

mpack wrote:But... I should warn that dongles tend to have tricky timing requirements that can't be guaranteed by a virtual USB implementation. I.e. even if you get the procedure right there's no telling how reliable the system will be, or even if it works at all.

I built a this whole system as a VM for proof of concept on a older windows 7 machine it's currently in use works great! The driving factor for this project was to be running on new reliable hardware with plenty of parts availability if need be. The only hang up was I didn't account for the USB 3.0 hardware on the new machine vs USB 2.0 on my current concept machine, otherwise things are working perfectly. Even the build on this new machine works fine so long as I use a USB 2.0 flash drive for the software key. It's really not a huge set back for this project, It became more a matter of personal pride since I knew it had been implemented but I couldn't get it to work.....yet!

socratis wrote:'J1081',I just repeated the procedure as described in the USB 3.0 support in XP guests thread. No problem. Can you tell me at which point your setup failed?

Interesting! I will try again with my clean virgin XP VM and report back. I don't notice a single point of failure during the process, everything seems to work just as the guide says, however when complete no USB device is recognized by the VM unless I switch back to USB 2.0 EHCI support and device manager indicates a driver problem with USB Root Hub.

In this guide USB 3.0 support in XP guests it says "The drivers can be installed in the guest before or after enabling the Renesas xHCI device. It is recommended to install after configuring the xHCI device." If I enable the xHCI device and set the extra data the VM will not start giving an error " VERR_PDM_NO_USB_PORTS" only disabling the extra data set allows the VM to then start.

Looking at this guide by Ranguno USB 3.0 support in XP guests it outlines the procedure by order of operations essentially the same steps just slightly more detail.

Procedure

• Download file Chipset_Driver_GVT5M_WN_3.0.23.0_A00.EXE from https://www.dell.com/support/home/en/en ... erid=gvt5m
• Select USB-3.0-Controller (xHCI) in your VM USB configuration
• Start Guest Windows Xp
• Run the downloaded file and choose unzipping
• Klick the button to open the folder with the unzipped files (...\Dell\drivers\Chipset_Driver_GVT5M_WN_3.0.23.0_A00)
• Run RENESAS-USB3-Host-Driver-30230-setup.exe to install the driver
• Shut down the Guest
• Open a DOS box and insert
  "<YourDriveLetter>:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox\VBoxManage.exe" setextradata NameOfVM VBoxInternal/Devices/usb-xhci/0/Config/ChipType uPD720201

Using either guide (essentially the same steps as far as I can tell) results in the VM failing to start showing this error "VERR_PDM_NO_USB_PORTS" I replicated this twice the only way to start the VM from this point is to turn off the extra data. This was done with a new VM and clean install of Win XP pro 32 bit the only thing add to the VM prior to these steps was the guest additions extension.

I know something odd is occurring because the original Win XP VM I tried to enable USB 3.0 on, does start and run with the extra data set it just doesn't have USB 3.0 support. I don't recall doing anything differently but clearly something is???