Workstation Pro 14: USB Flash Drive Not Detected

[TonyD71]

I am running a clean install of Workstation Pro 14.0 on a Windows 10 computer and I no longer have the ability to connect to any USB flash drive(s) under the menu VM >> Removable Devices as I did in the previous version.  I have installed VMWare Tools and installed an additional USB driver to which I found a reference on another thread and nothing works.  I know that USB is actually working on my VMs (both Windows 7 and Linux) because my wireless keyboard and mouse are USB and they both work on these VMs...but no USB flash drives are recognized (I've tried different sizes, manufacturers, capacities, USB 1.1, 2.0 and 3.0.  None work.)

[bonnie201110141]

Can you please check the followings?

1) So the flash drive does not show up in VM > Removable Devices, is this correct?

2) Can you execute the following commands in cmd?

sc query VMUSBArbService

sc query hcmon

3) Can you paste a screenshot of your host device manager with your USB flash drive plugged? Can you attach your USB flash drive to another host USB port to see if it works?

4) Do you have any other VMware products installed, such as Horizon View, vSphere client?

5) Have you recently upgraded your Windows 10 host machine?

[TonyD71]

Bonnie,

I’m sorry for the delay in my reply. 

1)  That is correct.  No USB flash drives show up in the Removable Devices List…but my wireless keyboard and Mouse use a USB adapter plugged in to the host and they work on any/all VMs…so I know that the USB port(s) are functioning and recognized by VMWare.

2)  When I ran these commands I received the following error: [SC] EnumQueryServicesStatus:OpenService FAILED 1060: The specified service does not exist as an installed service.

3)   Here is a screenshot of Device Manager on the host computer running Windows 10 Professional while a flash drive is plugged in. You can see “USB Mass Storage Device”. I have tried various USB flash drives in all ports and nothing shows up in my VMs.

4)  I do have vSphere Client installed.

5) I have not upgraded the host machine.  It is a clean install of Windows 10 Professional (not upgraded form Windows 7, 8, 8.1 etc.).  There have been several Windows updates, though.  I don’t know if any of these could have caused a problem.

[bonnie201110141 · Accepted solution]

Thanks for your update!

vSphere client might cause conflict issues with Workstation sometimes. Will you mind doing the following?

1) Uninstall vSphere Client

2) Uninstall VMware Worktation

3) Reboot host OS

4) Install VMware Workstation. Please check if USB devices work well in VM

5) If Yes for 4), please install vSphere client if needed.

Let me know if it works for you. Thanks!

[TonyD71]

Bonnie,

Thank you very much.  That worked.  I uninstalled both VSphere and VMWare Workstation, rebooted, reinstalled VMWare Workstation and everything was fine...all of my devices now appear in "Removable Devices" as expected. 

After reinstalling VMWare Workstation and everything worked, I reinstalled the Vsphere Client (just out of curiosity) and everything still worked in Workstation after that.  Originally, when it didn't work, I uninstalled and reinstalled Workstation (without uninstalling vSphere Client) and it didn't work (no removable devices)...so you're correct...it definitely had/has something to do with the vSphere Client.  I can use the vSphere Web Client too...but I'm a creature of habit and always used the standard client.  In any case, everything is working now, so thank you very much.

Tony

[ItsMeOk]

There was also files in C:\Windows\System32\DRVSTORE\hcmon_XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

After uninstall, etc. I could get workstation 14 to work but then after reboot it would not display all the USB devices again.

I removed these also and it works thru a reboot now.

It is like these versions get used to over write the other versions.