Vista - Sound & USB flash memory

With assistance from the good folks at the
microsoft.public.windows.64bit.general newsgroup, I installed VPC on my
notebook. Installing it was straightforward and intuitive enough for me to
do it with nothing more than a few directions to a question on the
newsgroup. I am up and ready to go but I have a couple of issues issues I
need to address:

1) the sound breaks up and sputters;

2) when I insert a flash drive into a USB port, it does not show
up in Windows Explorer.

1.. The Sounds and Audio Devices Properties only shows a playback device
for Sound Blaster 16. I noticed on my PC manufacturer's website that the
preloaded sound driver (Realtek High-Definition Audio Driver) on my notebook
is for Vista only so I looked for a Windows XP driver using the notebook's
manufacturer's website. No Windows XP driver is found for my sound
card for use with my specific notebook model. I found a Win XP driver and
installed it but it had no effect on the sound quality. I deleted the
driver for Sound Blaster 16 and reinstalled the Realtek driver. Upon a
reboot, WinXP found new hardware and reloaded the Sound Blaster 16 driver.

I don't know what else to try to resolve the sound problem.

2.. The USB flash drives are plug and play and as far as I know, they do
not require any special drivers.

I don't know what to do to get the flash drives to work.

"VistaNewbie" <wpla@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:3CCF669E-4E57-46A3-90D8-6500EB200C76@xxxxxxVPC does not support usb. Only a usb keyboard or mouse is usable by a vm
but that is because they are presented to the vm as PS/2 devices. You can
use a shared folder to access files on any attached storage but you cannot
directly access the device itself from the vm.

A vm uses a fixed set of emulated devices. Except for the cpu which is
virtualized, the devices on the host are unknown to the vm. The soundcard
is an SB16 in the vm regardless of the Realtek. Only the SB16 driver
installed in the vm will work. Installing the SB driver on the host is
pointless since the vm cannot see the host's soundcard. The host and guest
are two different computers.

I suggest that you update the virtual machine additions by using the Action
menu on the running virtual machine's window to correct any unintended
changes.

In article <3CCF669E-4E57-46A3-90D8-6500EB200C76@xxxxxx>
"VistaNewbie" <wpla@xxxxxx> wrote:That's fairly normal for VPC.
You need to use shared folders and then the VPC will see the drive.

On Sun, 06 Jul 2008 07:45:09 +0200, Anonymous Remailer
<mixmaster@xxxxxx> wrote:
But only if the USB flash drive was attached *before* the VPC2007
application was started up. It looks like the "shared folders" config
dialogs are populated from a drive list at the launch of VPC2007 and
then never updated...

Alternatively use normal network folder sharing instead. Then the
flash drive can be dynamically shared to the guest. It is also much
better because of the many issues with the VPC shared folder feature
that does not allow full sharing of files (number of
files/folders/sizes etc)

--

Bo Berglund (Sweden)

"Colin Barnhorst" <c.barnhorst@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:B5568031-DA2D-44E6-83D9-DCC6E7C39B1C@xxxxxxThanks again, Colin. You've given me quite an education on VPC.

I will work around the USB flash drive limitation. Bo Berglund's reply
seems like it will help me. I need to study it to grasp its implementation.
I will try to work on it after I've had a good night's sleep.

FYI, I didn't try installing the SB driver on the host. What I did was
install the Realtek driver on the virtual machine but I understand from your
reply that that wouldn't work either since the VM can't see the host's
soundcard. I don't understand why the SB16 soundcard doesn't work but my
real purpose of setting up the VPC is to telework, so sound is a "nice to
have" but not a requirement. I've muted the speakers so at least I do not
have to hear the corrupt sounds.

Most importantly, I can see the other physical computers connected to my
router and the Cisco VPN client is doing its job and allowing me to connect
to my agency's network drives and Exchange Server!

"Bo Berglund" <boberglund@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:alr0749ibi81na61afmg63amohe3778b2u@xxxxxx
Thanks, Bo. I will try this when I am rested.

>I'm glad to hear the VPN is working since that was the biggie.

"Bo Berglund" <boberglund@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:alr0749ibi81na61afmg63amohe3778b2u@xxxxxxThanks Bo. The shared folders method works fine. I was concerned about the
fact that the USB drive had to be attached *before* the VPC application was
launched because I had assumed I would have to restart every time I switched
drives. It works like a charm. Once mapped to a drive letter, one can
remove and reinsert flash drives without any problems.

Do you have a suggestion to allow a USB printer to connect? I haven't been
able to do that yet. Otherwise, I'm really loving this application!

On 06/07/2008 in message
<65D41D0F-EB56-4465-8E6D-4CBD2CC4DB10@xxxxxx> VistaNewbie wrote:
Set it up as a shared printer and print over the network.

--
Jeff Gaines Damerham Hampshire UK
There are 3 types of people in this world. Those who can count, and those
who can't.

"Jeff Gaines" <whitedragon@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:xn0fsddnf000000b@xxxxxxThank you! I am embarrassed that I didn't think about that before I posted
the question!

The only business related issue I have remaining is synchronizing my phone
to my calendar and contacts in Outlook. My phone synchronizes to Outlook
with either a USB connection or a Bluetooth connection. I'm in a Catch-22
with the USB driver installation. The driver software (Motorola only has a
32-bit driver on its website) will only install if the phone is powered on
and connected to a USB port. If I connect it before I start the VPC, as
required, the virtual machine does not recognize it, apparently because no
driver for it was found. When I try install the driver, the installation
aborts because no device is detected.

Motorola sells a Bluetooth Data Suite that will sync the phone to Outlook
but it appears that VPC does not recognize Bluetooth devices (Device Manager
doesn't show any Bluetooth radios). So... on my virtual machine, I can't
install the required USB cable and Bluetooth is not an option... stuck
between the proverbial rock and a hard place.