Body: <p>So, recently I tried to make my old Lego Mindstorms (RCX) work again with modern hardware to avoid digging up my old PCs each time I want to use it. The USB tower works on true hardware (On a PC with Windows XP 32-bit and the driver updated).</p>
  <p>I can set up the IR tower in USB and in COM - since my modern PC doesn't have a COM port, I skipped this option and tried immediately with the USB tower.</p>
  <p>I know that the USB tower doesn't work with 64-bit PCs, so I made a virtual machine of a Windows XP 32-bit on a host PC with Windows 11 64-bit. I've read that the USB tower needs a driver update to work with Windows XP so I installed it before plugging in the tower and there came the problem.</p>
  <p>Each time I plug in the USB tower, the cursor of my virtual Windows XP freezes, the VM seems frozen but I still can press Windows and interact with the keyboard, so XP is somehow still alive (I have difficulty closing the VM too after that). After that I tried to plug the USB tower directly at the start of the VM (with a USB filter in the settings of the VM), here the VM started up, and I saw the Windows XP loading screen and a black screen appeared right after that.</p>
  <p>I don't see if I do something bad, maybe on the host machine the tower requires something?</p>
  
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2024-07-04T12:48:42.390Z
Comments.Text: Hi Pikafort and welcome to Bricks.SE! I've taken the liberty to copyedit your question to get rid of some typos - please fix any places where my edits might have conflicted with your intent. Meanwhile feel free to check out the [tour] and read the [help] pages to learn more about the community and its rules and customs. Play well!
Comments.UserDisplayName: zovits
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2024-12-03T17:16:32.017Z
Comments.Text: Which virtualization software are you using to run the VM? (e.g., VMware, VirtualBox, Hyper-V, etc).
  
  Also, I posted info regarding a Windows XP VM with the Mindstorms USB tower here: https://bricks.stackexchange.com/a/18913/27192
Comments.UserDisplayName: MD004
Tags: <mindstorms><software><compatibility><rcx>
Title: Windows XP (VM) problem with Mindstorms IR USB tower
UserDisplayName: Pikafort
ThreadText: # Windows XP (VM) problem with Mindstorms IR USB tower
  
  (Asked by: username_0 on 2024-07-04)
  
  So, recently I tried to make my old Lego Mindstorms (RCX) work again with modern hardware to avoid digging up my old PCs each time I want to use it. The USB tower works on true hardware (On a PC with Windows XP 32-bit and the driver updated).
  
  I can set up the IR tower in USB and in COM - since my modern PC doesn't have a COM port, I skipped this option and tried immediately with the USB tower.
  
  I know that the USB tower doesn't work with 64-bit PCs, so I made a virtual machine of a Windows XP 32-bit on a host PC with Windows 11 64-bit. I've read that the USB tower needs a driver update to work with Windows XP so I installed it before plugging in the tower and there came the problem.
  
  Each time I plug in the USB tower, the cursor of my virtual Windows XP freezes, the VM seems frozen but I still can press Windows and interact with the keyboard, so XP is somehow still alive (I have difficulty closing the VM too after that). After that I tried to plug the USB tower directly at the start of the VM (with a USB filter in the settings of the VM), here the VM started up, and I saw the Windows XP loading screen and a black screen appeared right after that.
  
  I don't see if I do something bad, maybe on the host machine the tower requires something?
  
  **Tags:** mindstorms, software, compatibility, rcx
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_1**: Hi Pikafort and welcome to Bricks.SE! I've taken the liberty to copyedit your question to get rid of some typos - please fix any places where my edits might have conflicted with your intent. Meanwhile feel free to check out the [tour] and read the [help] pages to learn more about the community and its rules and customs. Play well!  
  > **username_2**: Which virtualization software are you using to run the VM? (e.g., VMware, VirtualBox, Hyper-V, etc).  Also, I posted info regarding a Windows XP VM with the Mindstorms USB tower here: https://bricks.stackexchange.com/a/18913/27192  
  
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  ## 0 answers
  
  