Unable to get USB 3.0 working in VMWare Guest Windows 7

Question

I am having a tough time in getting USB 3 work with VMWare Player 12 on Windows 7.

Host – Gigabyte 880GM USB3 board with Etron USB 3 controller. AMD Athlon CPU, 12GB RAM, Windows 7 64

Guest – VMWare Player 12, Windows 7 64, 4GB RAM, USB 3 enabled in VM configuration and successfully installed the recommended Intel(R)_USB_3.0_eXtensible_Host_Controller_Driver_5.0.3.42 in Guest Windows 7

The issue is when I connect a USB 2 or USB 3 pen drive at Host USB 3 port it is just not detected in the VM at all. Only once it mysteriously appeared but when I tried to connect it gave ‘Host is using the device’ error, but then no files or even explorer window was open on host.

I even tried installing the Etron drivers in Guest but it fails. I think there’s some incompatibility between the Etron Host device and the Intel USB 3 controller driver. There’s no issue with USB 2 ports at all. What else can I try?

Solution

The VMware Support article USB 3.0 support for Windows 7 virtual machine in VMware Workstation and VMware Fusion (2128105) lists the following conditions:

1. The guest VM must be defined with at least VMWare Workstation 12 compatibility
2. In Settings, USB Controller, the USB compatibility needs to be set to 3.0.
3. In the virtual machine, download and install the USB3 drivers from the Intel Download Center.

However, not all hardware configurations are supported. The most recent VMware article I have managed to find is Host and guest OS USB 3.0 and virtual xHCI support with Workstation 9 (2041591) which lists the supported configurations, and where the Etron USB3 controller is not listed as supported.

Even though the article is for Workstation 9 and not Workstation 12, this might be taken as an indication that your controller is unsupported, meaning that you meed to stay with USB2.

Comments

[Admin]

See if the following article applies also to VMWare Player : USB 3.0 support for Windows 7 virtual machine in VMware Workstation and VMware Fusion (2128105).

[Admin]

Thanks for the link @harrymc. I have followed the same procedure as mentioned in the link. USB 3.0 is enabled for the VM. The same specified drivers from Intel are installed and I do see USB 3 devices under Device Manager in Guest Windows 7 OS however USB devices plugged in at the Host USB 3.0 port are not detected by VM at all.

[Admin]

Is the guest VM defined with VMWare Workstation 12 compatibility? See this article about unsupported hardware configurations. Supported are at least USB 3.0 cards of Intel, TI, AMD and NEC/RENE

[Admin]

The article indeed confirms my doubt about incompatibility. Unfortunately from the article it's now clear that the Etron USB 3 on my board is not compatible with recommended Intel driver for the VM. Looks like I will have to use USB 2 only.

[samirj]

Yes it's clear from that article that despite correctly following all 3 above steps, it's still not working as Etron USB 3.0 chip is unsupported.For now I stay with USB 2.0 only.