VMWare Workstation 16 USB Arbitration Service will not start

[varnk]

I have been using VMWare Workstation 16.1.1 for quite some time without any issues.  However, for some reason the USB Arbitration Service has suddenly stopped working and will no longer start.  Getting the following errors in Event Viewer:

• A timeout was reached (60000 milliseconds) while waiting for the VMware USB Arbitration Service service to connect.
• The VMware USB Arbitration Service service failed to start due to the following error:
  The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely fashion.

I have tried starting the service manually and it still will not start. 

Tried to do a repair install and that didn't fix it.  Then, tried to uninstall and re-install and the problem still exists.  

I don't understand why this service suddenly stopped working.  I really need this to run because I do a lot of work with USB devices on my VM.  Please help!

[varnk · Accepted solution]

I figured out the problem and how to fix it.

1. I uninstalled VMWare Workstation.  
2. Deleted the C:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware USB Arbitration Service folder.
3. Installed Workstation again.
4. Reboot.

After doing that, the USB Arbitration Service started running again.  Turns out that the main key to fixing this was to delete the C:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware USB Arbitration Service folder.   Whatever got corrupted in that folder seemed to be the root cause of the problem.  How that happened is still a mystery, but at least I am now able to get back up and running again.