Intel Chipset Driver Problem

The most annoying effect that I have is that the VMware USB Arbitration Service doesn't start, because it doesn't recognize any USB ports. I work a lot with virtual machines and I can't connect any USB devices to my VMs in VMware Workstation because of that.

I agree that most USB devices work fine (i.e. external hard drives, USB sticks or webcams), but several applications that seem to rely on the USB universal host controller will fail. In my opinion, Apple has to fix this!

By the way, if you haven't noticed, there are 2 huge threads about the freezing issue, which most users experience in Mac OS X, but which I had several times in Windows, too. The discussion there indicates that the freeze problem might not be related to the USB universal host controller problem, but to the SATA controller or the graphics controller. There is definitely something seriously wrong here!

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2407560
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2420192

Thanks for the links. I haven't noticed any freezes but will keep an eye out.

Looking forward to Apple sorting this.

05/29/10
I have a new MBPro with Win7 Boot Camp. Installed VMWare Workstation 7.1.0
and had problem with USB-Arbitrator failing to start with Error code 2.
After great efforts troubleshooting (I am a programmer for work) the issue
was narrowed down to drivers. I paid VMWare for support and had one of their
engineers working remotely on my system for 2.5 hrs. He narrowed the issue
down to the hcmon.sys driver.
For some reason with my hardware and Win7 64bit a device called "USBFDO-0"
is not present on my system, I do have a USBFDO-1 and USBFDO-3. But the hcmon
driver expects to see at least the USBFDO-0 present. Since this is NOT present
it prevents the USB-Arbitrator service from starting.
The fix was he created a patched version of the hcmon.sys driver, put this on
my system, it fixed all USB issues right away, now my VM's all see the MBPro USB ports, the camera as well and bluetooth devices no problems.
The CATCH is that this driver is NOT digitally signed so I have to press F8 when booting and Disable the Device Driver Signature enforcement. This allows the new patched hcmon.sys driver to run and all is fine.
He mentioned that VMWare patches in coming months will incorporate his bug fix.
If you want more details on seeing if you have this same problem simply email me directly, I will also gladly send you the "unofficial" patched driver, all you need to do is rename the existing one, copy it to drivers dir, reboot with F8 disable signature chking and it works. In coming months VMWare will send out a fix.
mike@espositos.net

Same problem on a 15" MBP with Core i7 2.66 GHz.

Funny thing is that I moved the image of my older laptop onto my new MBP and then installed BootCamp on top on it; so I thought that the non-working USB controllers were just residual drivers from my old laptop that were refusing to go away. But then I formatted the BC partition and installed a clean copy of Windows 7, and the exact same problem happened.

Hopefully Apple fixes this soon.

Any news?

I filed a bug report as well several weeks ago, a few days later I got a reply asking if this was only happening in VMware. Of course I replied that it was not as the 2 USB controllers were showing up as not working under Device Manager. Haven't heard back from them since.

By the way, if anyone here has a 17" MBP, can you check how many of your USB Controllers cannot start? I think that the Intel Chipset that these new MBP's use come with support for 4 USB controllers and Apple did not properly disable the ones that are not in use, hence the errors. I've noticed that 13" and 15" MBP's come with 2 USB ports while a 17" ones come with 3. If my theory is correct, the 17" should only have 1 port that cannot start while the 13" and 15" ones should have 2.

Also, did anyone else file a bug report, and if so, what was their answer?

Message was edited by: Albert Trub

Any news on an Apple update?

Not only do I have the same problem with my brand new MacBook Pro i5, but it is preventing me from installing my HP printer driver software, as the installation fails each time because it says it can't set the printer up as a USB device (even though I will be connecting either wirelessly or via Ethernet).

The error messages say my computer doesn't have the necessary USB hardware or software support to allow completion of a USB installation.

I am running Windows 7 on the MacBook because I need to use Windows-only CRM and accounting software. If I can't print from this computer, it's pretty much useless to me!

Yeah I have a new MacBook Pro (my first mac) and the only problem is under the devices and printers the computer has an explanation mark signalling to troubleshoot. When I do this, it tells me that it cannot find the problem. Because of this I cannot install my HP printer on the windows side but it works completely fine on the mac side

I don't know if this is significant, but when the Windows diagnostic says it can't reinstall the driver, the hardware item it refers to in the error message ends in '3B3B'. However, if you go to devices>properties>hardware>USP root hub, I find the hardware names for each USB socket end in '3B34' and '3B3C' respectively.

Could the diagnostic be trying to reinstall the driver to non-existent hardware...?

Also, yesterday I finally got the screen freeze others have been reporting, and it happened when, for the first time, both my USB sockets had things plugged into them.

To anyone who is having problems installing an HP printer driver on a MacBook running Windows 7 because the HP installer aborts when it encounters the USB driver issue which is the subject of so many of the posts above, here is a workaround that may be useful in some cases (note my caveats):

IMPORTANT CAVEATS: a) This workaround will not work if you are trying to install the printer on your MacBook over a USB connection. It will only work with a network printer that has either a wireless or an Ethernet connection. b) Also, it may not work if the printer is straight out of the box, and you are attempting a first-ever printer install (I am not 100% sure about this - worth a try, maybe). c) It will allow you to print, and will bring up the standard HP print options window when you press Ctrl+P in a document, but if you have a multi-function printer, you may not be able to scan or fax from your computer, as you will not have the relevant HP utilities installed. d) There may be variations from the procedure below if you are running a version of Windows other than Windows 7.

*Make sure you are connected to the same network as the printer. Make sure the printer is turned on.*
Go to the Start Menu & select Devices & Printers.
Click on 'Add a printer' in the top bar.
In the wizard that opens, click on 'Add a network, wireless or Bluetooth printer'.
In the next window, click on 'The printer that I want isn't listed'
In the next window, which is titled 'Find a printer by name or TCP/IP address', click the button marked 'Add a printer by using a TCP/IP address or hostname'
In the next window, type the printer's IP address in the box provided.

To find the IP address, either go to HP's website and download the 'HP Home Network Diagnostic Utility' (tinyurl.com/26yzzfw) then run it and it will scan your network for the printer and bring up its IP address; or, in the printer's Setup menu window, scroll down to 'Network', click OK, select 'Network Settings', click OK, and select 'Display Summary' & click OK, and its IP address will be shown.

Select 'TCP/IP Device' from the drop down 'Autodetect' menu. Press Next.
The next window will show your printer's name and give you the option to rename it. Click Next.
In the next window, select if you want to share the printer or not. Click Next.
Finally, a window will appear confirming that your printer has been installed, giving you the option to select it as your default printer and to print a test page. When you are done, click Finish.
The printer should now appear in your Devices & Printers panel, and when you print from within a document, you should get the normal HP print options window opening up.

I hope this helps some of you who are/were in circumstance similar to my own with respect to being unable to use their new MacBook as they intended because they couldn't print!

+*Credit for this workaround goes to my excellent IT consultant, Ben Schneider (info<at>it-guy<dot>org). This post is all my own work!*+


<Edited by Host>

I think your logic is correct as to the fact that Windows could be trying to reinstall the driver for non-existent hardware.

As I said in my earlier post, I think that the chipset/motherboard used for these new MBP's comes with support for 4 USB ports from whatever vendor supplies them. However, it is up to the OEM's to supply the actual USB connectors (they typically come with the case) and to connect them to the motherboard. In case of Apple, they only have 2 USB connectors.

I think that as far as Windows USB driver is concerned, it checks to make sure that the USB controller is properly initialized before it marks it as working prolerly. In case of these new MBP's 2 of them are fully wired and show up as OK, the other 2 are not fully wired and therefore show a problem.

IMO, Apple needs to issue a firmware update completely disabling these unused USB controllers so that Windows does not even look for them. Another possibility is to issue a BootCamp update that simply installs some kind of dummy driver onto these USB controllers, thus making Windows shut the **** up. Although I would prefer the former.

I strongly urge all those of you affected by this problem to file a bug report here:

http://bugreport.apple.com

I have referenced this thread in my bug report, not sure if they read it or not. But the main idea is to bombard them with complaints. The more they receive, the sooner they will do something about it. If they only receive one or two, they will bury this at the bottom of the pile and who knows when if ever they get to it.

I have twice tried to file a bug report, but both times I have ended up with an error message which tells me that I don't have access the Bug Reporter, and suggesting I call the IS&T helpline, whatever that is.

As I'm in London, I will have to wait until CA wakes up to call them. I ended up reporting the access error via the ADC link for reporting access failures, even though I'm not an ADC member.

It's not a browser problem, as I've tried it with three different browsers including Safari.

Any suggestions?

I have a 17" MBP i7 and run Windows 7 Pro exclusively. Problem exists on this machine, two instances (addresses $3B36 and $3B3B)
Intel(R) 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset Family Universal Host Controller - 3Bxx. Same exact issue on my MBP 13 running XP Pro SP3. Have not tried OS10 on either, so couldnt say what issues exist there.
I noticed that all three physical USB ports work without issue when connected to keyboard, mouse, x HDD, printer. The only BSOD I have ever received was post install, before applying any updates to my XP machine - and the system blamed the NVIDIA driver - endless loop. The Win 7 machine has never gone unstable.

Interesting - the device manager thinks all '4' ports are fine, but those addresses do not match. If I disable one of the '4' PCI Express USB ports, the connected device fails, so these '2' ghost ports are not directly related to the physical three USB ports on the machine.

This is likely an internal connection for 'future' products that are not connected and were not turned off. The BSOD's are likely due to an NVIDIA issue, Thats my $.02.

I didn't have any BSOD's, but on the MBP 17 i5 I bought, it wouldn't cooperate with my external mouse under Win7 in bootcamp.

This is a showstopper bug for me because I MUST use Win 7 sometimes, and to have a notebook that can't use an external mouse is a real problem.

I returned mine for a full refund (Best Buy). I'd like to get this notebook again, but not until Apple fixes this problem. Of course, everything worked fine on Mac OS, so I'm sure it's not a high priority with Apple.

R.

P.S. I too was unable to submit a bug report using my AppleID. Interesting that...