I am trying to get Workstation / Player (tried both, no different) working on a Win 10 Enterprise build 1607 host with the ability to bind USB devices to the guest. (Ignoring USB devices, everything else works fine).
I am using 12.5.6 - didn't try so much with 12.5.5 but
I've read loads of different posts, and tried loads of things (over and over again) including:
- uninstall and reinstall
- uninstall, reboot, remove vmnet* network adapters, uninstall /clean, prevent vmware services from starting, reboot, run the vmware full uninstall steps, remove registry entries, delete files, reboot, reinstall (I knew those old Win95 experiences would come in useful again some day!)
- repair install, and repair install again
I've got past the failure to install vmusb and hcmon, and the usb arbitration service not starting.
I am now stuck with it simply saying 'the connection for the usb device "xxx" was unsuccessful' with a reason of "driver error".
The logs for the vmware USB arbitration service have this to say:
2017-06-12T21:45:16.048+01:00| vthread-4| I125: VTHREAD initialize thread 4 "vthread-4" host id 3856
2017-06-12T21:45:16.049+01:00| vthread-4| I125: USBArb: Starting VMUSBArbService args:'VMUSBArbService'
2017-06-12T21:45:16.053+01:00| vthread-4| I125: USBGW: Host controller #0 hc= "\\?\HCD0"
2017-06-12T21:45:16.053+01:00| vthread-4| I125: USBGW: Host controller #0 rootHubName="USB#ROOT_HUB30#4&2138960&0&0#{f18a0e88-c30c-11d0-8815-00a0c906bed8}"
2017-06-12T21:45:16.053+01:00| vthread-4| I125: USBGW: Host controller #0 rootHubDevInst="USB\ROOT_HUB30\4&2138960&0&0"
2017-06-12T21:45:16.054+01:00| vthread-4| I125: USBArbW: Connected to HCMON version 3.12
2017-06-12T21:45:16.135+01:00| vthread-5| I125: VTHREAD initialize thread 5 "vthread-5" host id 3892
2017-06-12T21:45:16.152+01:00| vthread-4| I125: VTHREAD initialize thread 4 "vthread-4" host id 3980
2017-06-12T21:45:16.152+01:00| vthread-4| I125: USBArb-BT: Beginning inquiry thread
2017-06-12T21:45:16.212+01:00| vthread-5| I125: USBArb: VMUSBArbService Started.
2017-06-12T21:45:18.184+01:00| vthread-5| W115: USBGW: WMIWin32_Wake failed for USB\VID_05C8&PID_0383\5&A6A6D4&1&9:1
2017-06-12T21:45:30.387+01:00| vthread-5| I125: USBArb: Num instances:2, user:SYSTEM client:vmware-hostd.exe
2017-06-12T21:45:30.387+01:00| vthread-5| I125: USBArb: Client 4488 connected (version: 7)
2017-06-12T21:46:12.542+01:00| vthread-5| I125: USBArb: Num instances:3, user:USER client:vmplayer.exe
2017-06-12T21:46:12.542+01:00| vthread-5| I125: USBArb: Client 9912 connected (version: 7)
2017-06-12T21:46:19.224+01:00| vthread-5| I125: USBArb: Num instances:4, user:USER client:vmware-vmx.exe
2017-06-12T21:46:19.224+01:00| vthread-5| I125: USBArb: Client 3556 connected (version: 7)
2017-06-12T21:46:19.224+01:00| vthread-5| I125: USBArb: Registered target 'vmware-vmx:C:\Users\USER\Documents\Virtual Machines\Ubuntu 64-bit\Ubuntu 64-bit.vmx' for client 3556.
2017-06-12T21:47:19.148+01:00| vthread-5| I125: USBArb: Connecting device 0x305c80383 to client 3556
2017-06-12T21:47:26.523+01:00| usbArb| I125: USBArb: Service being interrogated....
2017-06-12T21:47:27.274+01:00| usbArb| I125: USBArb: Service being interrogated....
2017-06-12T21:47:27.677+01:00| usbArb| I125: USBArb: Service being interrogated....
2017-06-12T21:47:35.116+01:00| vthread-5| W115: USBArbW: Connect failed: The semaphore timeout period has expired 0x(79)
2017-06-12T21:47:35.116+01:00| vthread-5| W115: USBArbW: Failed to connect device:305c80383 to 'dummy', status:4
2017-06-12T21:47:35.151+01:00| vthread-5| I125: USBArb: Client 3556 trying to close id 305c80383 it doesn't own.
It is on a laptop so there are loads of different USB devices to play with, and all of them fail the same way.
If I run the arbitration service manually (as listed in the first post below) I see this in the debug output when I try binding a new device:
C:\WINDOWS\system32>"C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\VMware\USB\vmware-usbarbitrator64" -f --verbose --debug 10 ... USBArb: USBArb_SendMsg op:4 len:4 USBArb: USBArb_SendMsg2 op:5 len:188 USBArb: USBArb_SendMsg2 op:5 len:227 USBArb: USBArb_SendMsg2 op:5 len:190 USBArb: USBArb_SendMsg op:4 len:4 USBArb: USBArb_SendMsg2 op:5 len:188 USBArb: USBArb_SendMsg2 op:5 len:227 USBArb: USBArb_SendMsg2 op:5 len:190 USBArb: USBArbCompletePipeRead: Asyncrhonously read the message from client:2C59970 len:8 readPos:8 isHeader:1 USBArb: USBArbInferMsg: Client 2C59970 wants to perform op:7 len:8 USBArb: USBArbPipeRead: Received request to read from client:2C59970 len:8 readPos:0 isHeader:0 USBArb: USBArbPipeRead: Synchronously read the message from client:2C59970 len:8 readPos:8 isHeader:0 USBArb: client:2C59970 op:7 len:8 USBArb: Client 1076 trying to close id 305c80383 it doesn't own. USBArb: USBArbPipeRead: Received request to read from client:2C59970 len:8 readPos:0 isHeader:1
(Before I tried workstation, I was seeing the arbitrator fail with "error 31 a device attached to the system is not functioning" although all devices were correctly running in device manager - but I can't recreate that situation now).
What to try next? I've spent many hours to get to this point and still no joy with something that should work out of the box like it has done for many years until now..
(One remaining question - I have vsphere client and client integration plugin installed - do they make a difference here?)
Some useful topics I've followed to no avail:
VMWare Workstation 12.5.5 / VMWare USB Arbitration Service
VM Removable Devices does not detect all USB devices under Workstation 12.5
The VMware USB Arbitrator returned error code 4(9)
VMware USB Arbitration service fails to start in VMware Workstation (2043656) | VMware KB
Error 31: A device attached to the system is not functioning, Windows 7 host, v. 7.1.4
Cleaning up after an incomplete uninstallation on a Windows host (1308) | VMware KB
Remove WorkStation Completly & Reinstall
Can't install Workstation Pro 12 because of virtual network driver