Parallels Workstation 6.0 Breaks Host USB

Hello Everyone,

I am a longtime Parallels Deskto for Mac user, and just recently (3 days ago) decided to try the Windows version on my Alienware M15x. I installed the software, then built and launched a Windows 7 VM (to use for Java development). I did not notice anythingon the first two days, as I was busy installing the programs and building the VM. However, yesterday when I went to plug in my USB Thumb drive to backup some data, I noticed that the drive was not showing. The thumbdrive was flashing an "error" condition, but would not mount. To keep a long story short, I ended up going into Parallels Chat, and having a very unhelpful person play around with my laptop (via TeamClient) and repeatedly demonstrate that with some tweaking, you chould get the drive to show up in the VM, and very rarely it would actually mount on the host. After an hour of them playing around, I gave up. Today I decided to uninstall Parallels, and low and behold, the USB ports started workign normally. I then remembered that while it was uninstalling, I noticed that it said "stopping services," and it hit me: a Parallels service was causing the issue. So I did some trial and error, and discoverd by stopping the prl_client_app.exe service, my USB ports returned to working normally. The clues that led to this diagnosis have to do with the USB not working does not matter if the VM or Parallesl is running, as it persisted. It even persisted after a fresh boot (ironically my iPhone and iPad continue to work, but they have their own servers that controls them). However disabling this service solves the problem. The bad thing about that, is that service is needed for Parallels to work. I have submitted a trouble report to Parallels, and hope they can find and fix this problem soon. But if you bump into this, just stop that service to get the USB working again. Hope this helps!

Rich S.

 

Hi Link ,

could you please Reinstall Parallels Tools via the "Actions" menu.

Thanks

 

Hi aarav1,

I am not sure what reinstalling the tools would do to fix the host, but I did it and no change. The Parallels service seems to intercept the USB port in order to be able to direct it to the VM, and for some reason it doesn't always release it back to the host. The USB port actually works fine most of the time within the VM, it is just the host that is left out of the game. Thanks!

Rich S.

 

I ma having the problem (no mouse) after installing Parallels tools... I have tried installing via the menu, but nothing happens - does it not require 'root' access to do this as for the original install?