PenPower Jr

[Fred Law]

I bought a new version of PenPower Jr. (ver. 7) with Crystal Touch tablet.  Now, I bought a new iMac.  I use VMWare to switch to Windows XP Pro in order to run Pen Power Jr.  However, in the XP environment, it takes the software O.K. but it cannot detect the tablet.  I contacted PenPower technical support but they said they do not suppoet VMWare.  Any suggestions or advice? Thanks.  Flaw.

[Eric Rasmussen]

First, review to make sure you know how to "connect" a USB device in Fusion.

If you're sure you know how to use Fusion, then this sounds like a
driver issue. Try asking or searching on the Fusion forums. What
version of Fusion are you running? It is possible that it is a Fusion
bug -- a lot of them are fixed in 2.x.

Another thing would be to contact PenPower but don't tell them your
copy of XP is running in Fusion. It really shouldn't matter. It's all
Intel. Have them run you through their normal troubleshooting process.
Then at least you'll know you've got everything installed correctly
within XP, and thus it must be a Fusion bug.

[Fred Law]

Thanks. I realize that the USB port is not active.  How do I do that in Fusion. Any advice. I am running VM Fusion ver. 1.1.1.

 

I did contact PenPower and I told them I was running it under Fusion and they said they don't support Fusion. 

[Joe Wicentowski]

Fred,

You might consider upgrading (it's free) to VMWare Fusion 2.0; USB
compatibility is one of the areas they improved, I believe.
http://www.vmware.com/download/fusion/

- Joe

[Eric Rasmussen]

You should absolutely upgrade to Fusion 2.0. The USB bug Joe mentioned
persists even in 1.1.3, so you should make the jump to 2.0.

That's not to say it is a bug at all -- plenty of USB devices work
fine in 1.1.x. But upgrading to the latest non-beta version of any
software is always the first step in troubleshooting. It's also a good
idea to make sure your XP Pro installation is up-to-date.

Updating Fusion is pretty easy -- just follow the instructions -- once
installed, 2.0 will ask to update your virtual machine (which should
be shut down before you start to update), and after you start the
virtual machine back up, you will need to run "Install VMware Tools"
in the Virtual Machine menu.

In Fusion 2.0, all of the USB devices attached to your computer should
appear as little USB icons on the bottom right-hand side of the Fusion
window -- you'll also see an image of your virtual hard drive, your
CD/DVD drive, and a few other things. If the tablet is "disconnected"
from the virtual machine, it will be greyed out -- if you hold the
cursor over the icon, a yellow box will pop up and identify the
device. Just click once on on the greyed-out icon and a pop-up menu
will appear -- select "Connect [device name]". You can also do this
through the Virtual Machine > USB menu, where all USB devices and
their status are listed. You may have to unplug the device and plug it
back in if it doesn't appear at any point.

Hope this helps,

ER

[Fred Law]

I did upgrade to Fusion 2.0 and I can see the USB port is active but it still does not recognize the tablet. 

On Thu, Oct 23, 2008 at 7:50 AM, Eric Rasmussen <hello....@gmail.com> wrote:

You should absolutely upgrade to Fusion 2.0. The USB bug Joe mentionedrader

[TenThousandThings]

Okay, if you are sure Fusion sees the tablet as "connected," and
you've tried unplugging it and plugging it back in, then try the
workaround below -- if it does not work, you should probably first ask
for help on the Fusion forums (also search them), then I think I'd lie
to PenPower about what computer you're using -- it's all Windows,
after all. I guess there are no PenPower user forums?

I think maybe (I really don't know much about troubleshooting Windows)
you're looking to install a driver for the tablet -- installing one
should be part of the PenPower installation process, but maybe a
dedicated install. Who manufactured the tablet? What model is it?
[You'll need this info for the Fusion forums.]

This was the workaround I used to get around a similar USB bug in
Fusion 1.1.x:

[1] Shut down the virtual machine.
[2] Close Fusion.
[3] Open Fusion.
[4] Reset the amount of RAM allocated to the virtual machine. A change
from, say, 1024 MB to 1025 MB is sufficient.
[5] Start the virtual machine. The device should now be recognized. If
run any Windows updates in the future, you'll have to reset the RAM
again.

Most of the issues related to this bug were fixed in Fusion 2.0. But
maybe their fix wasn't comprehensive. It's worth a try...

On Oct 26, 12:36 am, "Fred Law" <fwla...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I did upgrade to Fusion 2.0 and I can see the USB port is active but it
> still does not recognize the tablet.
>

[Fred Law]

No, it was not connected.  I also upgraded to Fusion ver 2.0.  i will give it a try for increasing the RAM.  Thanks.

 

Fred

[TenThousandThings]

On Oct 27, 7:12 am, TenThousandThings <hello.ras...@gmail.com> wrote:
> This was the workaround I used to get around a similar USB bug in
> Fusion 1.1.x:
>
> [1] Shut down the virtual machine.
> [2] Close Fusion.
> [3] Open Fusion.
> [4] Reset the amount of RAM allocated to the virtual machine. A change

> from, say, 1024 MB to 1028 MB (or back again) is sufficient.

> [5] Start the virtual machine. The device should now be recognized. If
> run any Windows updates in the future, you'll have to reset the RAM
> again.
>
> Most of the issues related to this bug were fixed in Fusion 2.0. But
> maybe their fix wasn't comprehensive. It's worth a try...

Actually, it turns out my issue still isn't fixed as of Fusion 2.0.1.
It only seems to be necessary with certain kinds of updates to Vista
-- anyhow, after the update, I have to do the above workaround to get
Vista to see the external USB hard drive again (Maxtor Basics,
containing the Siku Quanshu database).

Eric