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rabanero
Contributor
Contributor
‎03-02-2022 01:23 AM

USB Windows 11 host issues caused by VMWare USB Arbitration Service (VMWare Worstation)

Hi, Community.

I think I have found a bug on latest VMWare Workstation Pro/Player (16.2.2 build-19200509). I have Windows 11 hosting Windows 10 and 11 guests. When I was working on my host, I had issues with real USB devices (docks, pendrives, keyboards, etc.) because they aren't recognised by Windows. They appear as "Other devices" with exclamation icons in many situations:

  • New plugged devices.
  • Plugged and unplugged devices.
  • After coming back to suspend/hibernation mode in host.

In all of them, on Windows Device Manager they appear with their names, but wrong UID/PID (lot of zeroes). As result, they can't be recognised with failed driver initialisation.

After many tests (updating host BIOS, disabling USB power saving parameters, latest drivers, etc.) I decided to stop all non-Windows services via "msconfig". Then I pulled up one by one to reach basic working and then host computer began to work properly with USB devices. When I continued activating services and test, until I reach to "VMWare USB Arbitration Service". When I activated it again, USB problems came back. Deactivating the service everything worked well again.

So I think I identified the cause of problems on this service, that seems to be filtering USB signals and giving wrong information to Windows 11 host.

I write this post to check if anyone is having the same problem and with the hope of a good solution.

Thanks.

2 Replies
RichoT
Contributor
Contributor
‎10-10-2022 09:53 PM

Yep having this problem also in version 16.2.4

If I have a VM client running then some devices fail to attach to windows host. (dialogue told to do so)
An example is ti's EV2400 kit.
Windows doesn't recognize it because the ID's are all bad.

If I simply stop the VM client then the USB device connects to the host fine. (don't actually have to stop the service)

RT

ChuckHWL
Contributor
Contributor
‎09-06-2023 02:30 PM

Hi all:

 

Apologies if I am replying to a rather early post, but just wanted to add that I've recently had my laptop reimaged to Windows 11 22H2 Enterprise Edition and I am also now seeing this behaviour on VMware Workstation Pro 17.0.2 (build-21581411).  I have to stop/suspend my running VMs to allow the devices to be recognised on the Host.

Have tried both the "Ask Me What To Do Setting" as well as "Connect device to Host" setting but problem still exists.

Thanks.

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