Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

Spoffo · Jun 10, 2008, 07:38 PM

I have a MacBook Pro running 10.4.11 with Parallels 3 and Win XP pro installed. Everything seems to be running just fine on both sides except one thing (which happens to be the main reason I installed Parallels):

I have two applications that exist only for Windows that I need to use frequently. One collects the monthly database revision for an aviation GPS and downloads it to a proprietary USB datacard writer. The other is the programming software for my home theater remote control, which downloads the finished program to the remote via a USB connection. Both of these require a device-specific USB driver installed under Windows, and both of these involve substantial amounts of data. The GPS download involves a cycle of Erase/Write/Verify that takes about 10 minutes, while the remote program is a couple of MB and takes about 60-90 seconds to download.

Both of these programs work just fine under Parallels except that the download over USB is very unreliable. With each one, the transfer will freeze about 75% of the time before it is complete. There's no consistency about when in the process it will freeze, and about one in four times it does manage to complete normally, so there isn't some fundamental incompatibility at work here.

I finally installed Boot Camp as a workaround, and sure enough, both programs work like a dream under Boot Camp. The transfers seem faster and are 100% reliable. Still, it would be much more convenient to be able to do these under Parallels.

My question is, has anyone else experienced this problem of unreliable USB data transfers, and has anyone found a fix?

Cold Warrior · Jun 10, 2008, 08:24 PM

If it turns out that there's no fix, you could try VMware Fusion. It has a free trial.

ibook_steve · Jun 10, 2008, 08:24 PM

Assuming you're using the latest version of Parallels and installed the latest Parallels tools, right?

Check the Parallels forums (Parallels Desktop Products Support) for your devices and/or start a new thread there. If you report a problem with a device, they may fix it for the next release.

Steve

Spoffo · 02:04 PM

I think maybe I will try VM Fusion. Someone over in the forum for my remote said he switched to Fusion from Parallels and got totally reliable USB downloads.

The Parallels forums have a few other people reporting problems like this and some speculation that it may be related to the different USB connection options in the Parallels prefs, but the discussions are just sitting there with no input from Parallels, and this is their own, manufacturer-sponsored forum. Not a great example of customer support.

Spoffo · Jun 11, 2008, 06:18 PM

(4 hours later) Yup, that definitely is the answer. Installed the trial of Fusion, and I've now got all the same rock-solid USB connections I used to get only in Boot Camp.

The installation of Fusion from my Boot Camp partition had some stumbles and surprises (e.g. even though all the software and documents came over from my Boot Camp installation, the USB drivers for my GPS, etc did not, and had to be re-installed.) But, once past these, it is definitely zippier and more solid feeling than Parallels.

Cold Warrior · Jun 11, 2008, 06:53 PM

If you're not going to use Parallels, you should uninstall Parallels Tools (or whatever its called) from your Boot Camp partition, just to reduce overhead and eliminate a future source of conflicts or issues.

Spoffo · Jun 12, 2008, 09:58 PM

Not an issue. I had 2 separate installations of Windows for the Parallels VM and boot camp (Because I had installed Parallels first and only added Boot Camp after I found that Parallels wasn't able to do everything I wanted.) So, in the next day or two, I can un-install Parallels and then flush the whole Parallels VM, picking up about 20gb of free disc space. (Fusion is running on my existing Boot Camp partition.)

Guy Kuo · Jun 15, 2008, 01:51 AM

I also had USB video digitizer issues under Parallels and am now happily running VMWare Fusion. Don't forget to run the Parallels uninstaller to remove the networking stuff it adds to your OSX system. I also ran a search for parallels and deleted all left over parallels files.

Yes, I ended up paying for two different virtualization packages, but at least I ended up with one which works for me.

ibook_steve · Jun 15, 2008, 03:53 AM

Ugh. Why am I the only one who likes Parallels over Fusion?

Steve

chabig · Jun 15, 2008, 07:25 AM

I like Parallels. I wanted to try Fusion once, but it wouldn't transfer my Parallels installation, so I gave up.

Cold Warrior · Jun 15, 2008, 09:51 AM

I like them both -- even paid for Parallels. Then it hosed my boot camp partition's Windows installation and I decided to switch. After paying for Fusion, I'll stick with it until/unless it does something really nasty to my data.

The Godfather · Jun 20, 2008, 12:32 AM

I can't love any of them:
Fusion refuses to install RedHat because the installer can't see the virtual hard disk connected to the VM. It will boot from the CD only the first time, but not anymore after that.
Parallels can't connect properly my USB flash drives.
VirtualBox can't do bridged networking without killing the host's net connection.

JohnDead666 · Jun 30, 2008, 11:03 PM

Just for the record I also have similar USB issues.

I am running Parallels Desktop 3.0 on a MacPro 2.5Ghz with Mac OS X 10.5.2.

I need to connect a SATA drive formated in ReiserFS. I don't have another SATA desktop computer anymore. I purchased this USB-SATA-IDE adaptor. Works quite fine. Unfortunately in order to access that ReiserFS driver I need to either boot Macbook from some linux distro (annoying as meanwhile the computer is mostly busy copying and I can't really do anything meanwhile ) OR I can boot up a linux virtual machine, activate the USB and access the Reiser drive. Unfortunately after a few operations the USB somehow gets confused ( I don't know) and won't work anymore until I reboot the virtual machine. It is simply NOT possible to copy much anything....would VMWare Fusion do any better?

Nicolas.

Cold Warrior · Jun 30, 2008, 11:16 PM

maybe. It has a free trial, so you can at least give it a shot.

etung · Jul 1, 2008, 07:24 AM

Originally Posted by The Godfather

Fusion refuses to install RedHat because the installer can't see the virtual hard disk connected to the VM. It will boot from the CD only the first time, but not anymore after that.

What's the exact version of RedHat you're trying, and what OS did you select when you created the virtual machine? Without knowing this, my wild guess is that Fusion uses a virtual SCSI disk (as opposed to virtual IDE disk) for the OS you chose, and that the RedHat CD has the proper SCSI drivers but the installed version doesn't.