Hello everyone, I'm trying to set a MacBook Pro (Mavericks) up with Parallels Desktop 10 with Windows 7 for one of my users so that he can use our system's version of Dragon Naturally Speaking with a PowerMic II usb microphone. The issue I'm running into is that after the VM is started, if the host OS goes to sleep with the USB mic plugged in, when it wakes up again, it's almost guaranteed (say, 95% chance) that the VM no longer recognizes the microphone. It still shows up in Windows 7's Sound Options, but the VM does not respond to buttons on the mic itself or record input from it. I've read a bunch of bad stuff about Parallels 10, but I have another MacBook Pro with Parallels 9 that experiences the same issue. I've set the mic up to connect to the VM automatically in external device preferences. I've tried unplugging it and plugging it back in - this works 90-100% of the time on my Parallels 9 laptop, 0-10% of the time on the Parallels 10 laptop that I am trying to set up. Sometimes the VM will recognize that it has been disconnected, most of the time it does not. On either laptop, if you go to the Parallels Menu > Devices > External Devices, and then uncheck and recheck the mic, it starts working again. I do not feel that this is an acceptable answer. If unplugging it and plugging it back in worked 100% of the time, maybe, but even then I feel that with virtualization technologies being advanced as they are, this shouldn't be necessary. I've called Parallels support and all I can really say is that as a technical professional I am horrified at what I've experienced so far. On both occasions I've spoken with someone who either doesn't understand English well enough to understand what I am trying to tell them, or doesn't care enough to listen to what I am saying. On both occasions they've either remoted in and changed some things that don't make sense to me or had me make the changes myself, have been unable to explain how it will help, only assuring me that it will work from now on. It hasn't.
Hi Kyle, I am experiencing the exact same problem. Im running Yosemite and Dragon Dictate 13. If the app goes to sleep then I am unable to get the USB microphone to wake up. I've tried Dragon v 12.5 and Logitech and Jabra microphones with the same result. Im using Windows 7/
Al, I'm switching my users to VMware Fusion. It's not without its own issues, but I've found it to be more reliable in terms of USB detection. On the few occasions it hasn't picked the USB back up on its own, simply unplugging it from the Mac and plugging it back in was enough to fix it. I also feel a lot safer in terms of being able to get support for the product. The one time I had to call support, I had a much better feeling that the person I was talking to actually knew the product - they weren't just reading from a script.
Hi Kyle and Al_Whitehead, Please submit a Support Ticket at https://www.parallels.com/products/desktop/support/request/ one of our representative will assist you with the issue.
If there was a solution, I'd love to hear it. I've stopped using Parallels for anything that uses USB as I find I have to reconfigure the device almost each time it's used. My Logitech headset is a nightmare. You have to configure the microphone before each Skype/Lync call.
