Installed the desktop software but when I plug the BB in nothing happens. Then I select it from the USB button on the bottom right and I get a text box that says "USB device you are trying to connect to the virtual machine is being used by another process. Wait 5-10 seconds, then try to connect the device again. If this does not help, find the application that blocked up the device and disconnect it manually."

So now what? I want to use it to install some apps.

1) uninstall pocketmac
2) check and uncheck the USB button on the bottom right a few times and you will have success - you will know when you get prompted for the BB password.

btw this is _the_ problem which is stopping a full device OS upgrade from being successful on Parallels - so close!

well I couldnt seem to make it work. Im now considering using bootcamp to avoid the whole issue.

Update: I found someone that was having the same issue and said to unplug all usb devices besides your keyboard/mouse, reboot, and try again as that worked for them.

I gave it a try and it did work, but the connection is very sporadic. It will disconnect without even telling you. And sometimes you do have to disconnect/reconnect a few times from the ubs menu at the bottom right.

Have you installed Pocketmac on the Mac side? Some have found that interferes.

I'm running parallels and sync my BB several times a day with Outlook on the PC side. When I first plug in the BB I hear it connect but I get a "the USB port is not strong enough to charge the BB" message (or something like that) on the BB screen and I get no connection. I simply unplug and replug and it connects right up with the desktop software. I have also noticed that if I leave the BB plugged in for a while (10+ minutes) it will sometimes disconnect. All I have to do is plug and unplug two times and it reconnects.

It sounds like a pain, but is really pretty reliable. I only plug in the BB when I want to sync, and a quick plug, unplug, replug sequence always gives me a reliable connection.

Parallels has been a life saver for me. Outlook runs flawlessly with my company Exchange server. I can access other PC based database programs on the work network. And my 8700g is easy to keep synced. I couldn't be happier with this as a solution.

Yes, I did install pocketmac but had uninstalled it. I don't know if its still causing problems or not. But I can tell you than when I was able to get it working in parallels it was decidedly not reliable.

Something to remember with Parallels and USB devices:

Always have parallels (and the OS) completey up and running before you connect the BB, because the second Parallels releases control of the device OS X will take over, and the communication link is broken.