Cannot open vmaparaport driver for LPT1

[IHRICK]

Hello,

I am having a problem seeing the parallel port dongle through a vmware quest session. I have enabled the parallel port in vitual machine settings hardware settings to auto detect. I am running a vista laptop which only has a parallel port connect when docked in the docking station.

The problem is when a launch a quest session I get the following message "Cannot open vmaparaport driver for LPT1 the operation completed successfully Vitual device parallel0 will start disconnected.

I cannot run my software because it looks at the dongle for an id.

Help Please

[RDPetruska]

What happens if you change from "auto detect" to specifying the appropriate port?

[IHRICK]

Same result.

I tried again just to make sure.

Thanks

[RDPetruska]

Hmm... Did you install Workstation while the PC was docked? If not, perhaps when it installed, since there was no parallel port, it did not install the vmaparaport driver. If that's the case, you may want to do a repair installation while the laptop is in the docking station.

[IHRICK]

No. I was pretty sure that I installed while it was in the docking station, but just to make sure I did a repair. Still no luck.

[KevinG · Accepted solution]

The repair option will not work, you will need to make sure that the host sees the LPT port and reinstall the VMware software

[IHRICK]

My computer does see the LPT1 port and always has. It not found to be disabled.