Sync Blackberry 8830 with VMWare XP on a Mac

Hello everyone,

I have a macbook, running both mac os and windows xp os. For work, I HAVE to run my work database on the pc side of my mac, forcing me to use outlook to sync with my database (won't work with the mac os). From there, I used to sync my cell phone (old palm treo 600, with sprint) with outlook on the pc side of the mac.
Now I have bought a blackberry curve with verizon. I have installed destop manager 4.7 from bb and unistalled palm hotsync, so that there are no conflicts.
I want to sync my outlook running on windows xp/vmware with my new verizon curve 8300 (calendar, notes, addressbook, etc..). I used to be able to do it fine with my old palm, but for some reason, I get this error message from VMware when I plug in the usb from my bb:
"The device "Research In Motion RIM Composite Device" was unable to connect to its ideal host controller.
An attempt will be made to connect this device to the best available host controller. This may result in an undefined behavior for this device."

after that, the vmware screen goes black, until I click ok. when I click ok, the screen comes back to where it was, and windows xp and desktop manager (dm) recognize the curve on the usb. I can go into dm and set up the sync parameters with outlook and the device. but when I hit the sync button, nothing happens.

Since I also have gone to vmware settings/usb devices, and checked "enable usb 2.0 support" as suggested in other forums, but it doesn't seem to help either. Getting desperate...

Any help would be greatly appreciated, as I'm starting to despair I will ever be able to use my bb curve. I have seen people on this forum say they are able to do this, but nowhere have I seen instruction on how to make it work. I hope this forum will be the place.
thanks in advance
--Ioranna

First off all welcome to BlackberryOS Ioranna :) I am not a Mac user but let me see what I can find for you. Hopefully one of our Mac users can chime and get this solved for you.

In the mean time I found this floating out there on the web :) you might have already done this but double check just in case.

I got it figured. In settings of your VM you need to go into your USB devices and turn them on.

With VMware off, click Virtual Machine then settings then USB devices. Make sure the following are both checked:

1. Enable USB 2.0 support
2. Automatically connect USB devices

If you not already done so Install VMware tools.

Thank you SO much for taking the time to look into this, you have no idea how much I appreciate it Bryan and JLevy73!
on the solution you sent me, I did find that too, and did not get anywhere unfortunately. I will try again now, make sure I did it properly, and get back to you, either way.

In the mean while, keep those suggestions coming, I really want to get this working.
best

all right. So I did go through your instructions, and realized that I had not before installed the vmware tools, so I did that. I also made sure that both boxes below are checked:
1. Enable USB 2.0 support
2. Automatically connect USB devices
I restarted xp on vmware, and connected the bb via usb.
the good news: the screen didn't go black and I didn't get the error message "The device "Research In Motion RIM Composite Device" was unable to connect to its ideal host controller." So my hart started racing: did we solve this issue and will I be able to sync?
The bad news: even though the bb is connected via the usb (showing as connected), the bb desktop manager does not pick it up (device conneced pin: None , and dm status "not connected"). Also, in the bb dm, under configure synchronization tab, both the synchronization and the view log button are unclick-able (light grey).

The irony is that when I was getting the error message, after clicking ok, the bb dm was picking up the device's pin.

So Bryan and Jlevy73, I am affraid we are back to square one. I thank you both greatly for your research, and if you have any other idea's or suggestions, I'm all ears.
Also, if anyone out there has an idea of how to solve this, I will gladly listen.
thanks
Ioranna
PS: fyi, I copy/paste this post on crackberry and vmware forum, mentioned this forum and thanked both of you for your help ;)

I would suggest creating a new Virtual Machine. On my first attempt installing XP via VMWare, I didn't install the VMWare tools and XP never worked properly. So I deleted XP and reinstalled it again and haven't had any issues ever since.

This video might be of some help: YouTube - Windows On A Mac : Installing Windows XP on VMware Fusion

thanks thetruth. I hope I won't have to go there. but it might be what I need to do. I have never had any other problems before this however, so I'm not sure if this is the solution. but if all fails, I might just give it a try, no matter how much I hate the idea

best

Latest update: I talked to the verizon tech support team yesterday night, they couldn't do anything, so they transfered me to the blackberry tech support, who told me that they did not provide support for macs running windows xp via vmware. back to square one.

at this time, with the virtualmachine/settings/usb devices - enable 2.0 support and automatically connect usb devices checked, and the vmware tools installed, I do not get the error message "unable to connect to ideal host controler", but also the bbdm4.7 does not pick up the usb device even though virlualmachine/usb shows "disconnect rim device"., indicating that the mac and pc are picking up the device...

not sure where to go from here, so let me know if you guys come up with anything

thanks

case closed, problem solved. thanks to all who helped. for those wondering, it was just a matter of going into the device manager on xp and troubleshoot the usb port that wasn't working. Cheers

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ioranna

case closed, problem solved. thanks to all who helped. for those wondering, it was just a matter of going into the device manager on xp and troubleshoot the usb port that wasn't working. Cheers

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Glad to hear it :)

I moved this thread into the new Mac Users forum in case someone else has this problem.

I am glad you received the issue. I know how frustrating these can be.